Sky Bunny
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: A simple mistake while in a rush to get to an interview leads to an unexpected adventure. Usagi is the shy, easily startled secretary of Seto Kaiba who has a habit of wearing a bunny eared headband, complete with tail. Except not even she was aware of the fact that her past is about to make a big splash in the corporate world! Fem Tsuna
1. Chapter 1

She gulped as her turn came up. She had grabbed the first headband she could find since she didn't have time to actually brush her hair, and this was _literally_ her only chance to get away from that horrible nickname that had followed her for _years_.

No one back home wanted to hire her... they all knew she was a total klutz, rather slow witted and attracted trouble like no one's business. It wasn't her fault... it was just that for some reason delinquents tended to target her first over more attractive targets and by extension wherever she was working.

Her only job before this had been washing dishes, and while the owner was a nice man who took her clumsiness in stride... but the pay was barely worth it.

If she ever wanted to leave that town once and for all, she needed money. Her allowance was pitiful, and the pay from her dish washing job was just enough to pay for a few small things.

When her name was called, she squeaked but went in.

The possible employer was terrifying, but thankfully at a level she was already familiar with.

It was like dealing with a snarlier, angrier Hibari. One who hated people but was forced to be _nice_ (or as close as he could get) to them on a daily basis.

Seto Kaiba reminded her rather strongly of an unhappy dragon, one that was forced to deal with humans regularly despite how much he would prefer to never leave his cave.

She was on familiar ground now. He clearly didn't want to deal with a bunch of unknowns, so it was probably best to treat him like she would an unhappy Hibari whenever she was late.

Show nothing but respect (fear) and a submissive attitude like a small animal and hope to the gods that he didn't bite her head off.

"If you're trying to appeal to my better nature with those ears, it's not working."

Ears?

She reached up and realized with some mortification she had grabbed a pair of rabbit ears instead of her head band by mistake in her rush to get here on time. Worse, not a single person said anything!

"Whatever... let's just get this over with. I have better things to do with my time than deal with sycophants and idiots," grumbled Seto Kaiba.

What followed was pretty standard. During the course of the interview she did her best not to piss him off... she didn't want to find out if the mental comparison to Hibari was just a coincidence and have him bite her to death if she irritated him too much.

She went home, exhausted beyond belief.

However... the next week she got a call.

She had the job.

* * *

 _A few days later..._

"Sorry!" she said sheepishly.

"Easy. Big brother hates it when things are out of order more than he does being late. You're the new one aren't you?"

"Yeah, I still can't believe I got the job. I thought I totally messed it up by grabbing the wrong headband by mistake," she replied.

"Wait... you're Bunny Girl?" said Mokuba, in amusement and surprise.

"Bunny girl?" she repeated.

"Let's just say the headband helped. He actually remembered you after the interview was over," said Mokuba dryly.

She blushed in embarrassment.

"I still can't believe I was hired at all. The only other job I had before this was washing dishes."

Mokuba winced.

"There's a reason for that. You didn't annoy my brother and despite the lack of skills you were one of the rare few who wasn't a plant from another company, someone who was interested in getting in his pants, and he mostly needed someone to fend off the more annoying idiots. The whole secretary thing was just a nicer way of saying that you're the one who has to deal with people."

Her lips quirked up.

"Basically the dragon wanted someone to guard his den so he didn't have to deal with so many humans," she said amused.

Mokuba snickered.

"Pretty much. I mean you could wear those rabbit ears again and no one would care."

"I think I might. Clearly they're a good luck charm," she joked.

True to his prediction, no one even batted an eye at the ears after the first week and a half. By the end of the month she was the longest lasting "secretary" Kaiba had ever had, a fact that surprised many considering how quickly he had a habit of firing them.

Then again, they had never had prior experience of how to deal with a dragon thanks to Hibari.

On the plus side, she was getting better at using a computer.

* * *

Mokuba was heading to his brother's office to deliver some reports when he realized something.

Bunny girl (he really needed to find out her real name...though she didn't seem to mind being simply called "Usagi-chan") was still manning the desk to his brother's office. There were several rather pushy idiots in front of her, though she wasn't budging.

Mokuba grinned as he heard her stand her ground and insistently ask whether or not they had an appointment.

Watching those self-important idiots walk off in a huff, he snickered.

"Nice job."

"Your brother in a foul mood scares me more than they do," she said flatly.

Mokuba snickered.

"And yet you haven't run far, far away from him after seeing it twice already."

"That's because I know for a fact that while he'll snarl and growl at me, he won't express his irritation with physical violence like the other dragon I know," she deadpanned.

"...Other dragon?" said Mokuba slowly.

"Hibari Kyouya is a much more violent, far more territorial version of your brother," said Usagi with amusement.

"I'll believe that when I see it," said Mokuba flatly.

She grinned.

"Go on in if you want to see your brother. Unlike those idiots you don't need an appointment," she said with amusement.

Mokuba snickered with amusement and went right in.

Kaiba looked up from his desk, then looked at the time before blinking.

"What's wrong?"

"...I just had five hours of uninterrupted productive work."

Mokuba blinked twice, before he snickered.

"You can thank Usagi-chan for that. She's been frustrating those leeches we call our Board every time they come to demand something from you."

"Usagi?"

"Bunny girl. The one who came to the interview with rabbit ears by mistake."

"She's still here?" said Kaiba in surprise.

"For the past three months. You didn't notice?" said Mokuba with open amusement.

From the look of his face, that would be a "no".

The fact remained that for the past three months he had been getting _actual_ work done without interruptions for several long stretches of time.

And he had no idea who was responsible for this fact until Mokuba commented on it.

If she lasted another month he would have to go to stage two. A test of loyalty.

* * *

Usagi squeaked when someone grabbed her off the street as she was heading into work.

In a dizzying set of turns and switchovers (she had no idea where she was, especially since the glass was blacked out from both sides) she found herself in a rather depressing room. There was a mirror window, a plain desk and a man in a really cheap suit.

Usagi was a bit freaked out at first. Who knew what this guy wanted, and she wasn't exactly a fighter.

That concern swiftly died and shifted to something more akin to feminine rage and indignity.

He was trying to _buy_ her loyalty? Sure, the job wasn't what she expected and her boss was slightly terrifying.

But expecting her to fall for this obvious trap?

Usagi stood up, took the money and dumped in on his head.

"No thank you," she said curtly, clearly pissed off. "I might not be more than a guard dog for my boss, but if there's one thing I _do_ have it's loyalty. I will not be bought and if you try to insult me further I will slap you."

She walked to the door and was mildly surprised to find it unlocked. That surprise only went up when she found herself a few blocks from her work. She checked her watch, and walked out the door with her head held high and her pride intact.

She had no idea the chaos she left in her wake, or the openly disbelieving look on her boss' face when he saw that little show. Mokuba was outright grinning.

"Did she pass that weird test you insisted on, big brother?" he snickered.

Most teenagers would have _jumped_ at the chance to earn a quick ten million yen, all for a little spying. Seeing the usually timid Usagi dump it on the random man his brother hired to play the part of a rival company agent and threaten to slap him if he even thought of trying to raise it further had been a surprise. A pleasant one though.

Mokuba had to admit... Usagi was terrifying in her own right when he saw her an hour later. She was clearly pissed off, but managed to maintain a calm facade long enough to do her job.

Something about that smile made the three leeches who were on their board of directors actually wet themselves in fear when she turned it on them.

* * *

 _A days later..._

Kaiba looked at the employee profile of "Usagi", aka "Bunny Girl".

Which wasn't her actual name, but considering the nickname she had in her home town he could understand why she chose to let people call her that.

Sawada Tsubaki was a complete nobody. Someone so pathetic that it was a miracle she had managed to show _this_ level of competence as a secretary beyond turning people who annoyed him away at the door.

Her grades were just _barely_ above the failing mark, her physical condition was the absolute dead last of her school, and her only known family was a mother who was quite clearly delusional.

There was word of her father, but the man hadn't been seen outside of the rare appearance in town for years. And never for more than a week at a time. Supposedly he worked in the cold regions of the arctic "directing penguins", which was a cover story so fake it was obviously a lie.

In all honesty as a secretary she barely ranked "acceptable".

And yet she managed to survive as his "secretary" for close to five months when every other applicant was either chased off for annoying him too much, or failed the loyalty test.

He would have to keep an eye on her, bunny ears or not.

* * *

Usagi blinked at the task she was given. Why was _she_ the one who had to organize the office Christmas party when it was mostly for the adult workers? It was an almost guarantee that there would be spiked punch, barely acceptable "Santa/Mrs. Claus/Elf" costumes, and of course far too much noise. And don't forget the presents, which were also a given.

She sighed. Okay, she could understand why they weren't asking the boss to organize it. If he was anything like Hibari he probably disliked the holiday other than spending some quality time with his little brother. And technically she _was_ the one with the most free time since she mostly denied entry to the boss' office.

Time to ask around and find out what everyone wanted and then narrow down a list.

"Um... Mokuba? Do you think you could help me with something?" asked Usagi.

"What do you need?"

"I got roped into organizing the Christmas Party for everyone else. And I would very much like to avoid having your brother bite my head off because they happened to bother him when he would almost certainly like to avoid everyone except for you," Usagi replied. "I need to know what to avoid... specifically which floors he intends to use for the holidays so I can divert the parties to different ones."

Mokuba's amusement only rose when he heard her reasoning. Once again, Usagi-chan proved herself far more adept at reading his brother's mood than any other person save for him. She wasn't forcing Seto to interact with his employees who would almost certainly be drunk that day.

It was an unspoken fact that the last three parties he was forced to join resulted in twenty people being fired...usually for being so drunk they hit on the boss or just irritating him with their noise level.

He was grinning and trying not to laugh as he helped Usagi draft an e-mail with a check list that was completely anonymous. The fact they made a list of "acceptable" booze to spike the punch with (again, she was just assuming it was a given it would happen at some point, so they might as well add it anyway) amused Mokuba greatly.

This was more for the employees, since Mokuba and Seto preferred a quiet Christmas together rather than a loud party.

Within a few hours, Usagi had a decent list. And with Mokuba's help she managed to narrow it down...including the floors that they were allowed to use.

Mokuba had to laugh at the "rule" Usagi also posted once she shared the lists with the employees.

"'The biggest mess makers will have to perform all the clean up, since the janitors will be given the day off. This includes messes made from drunken revelry and improper usage of closet/office or any enclosed spaces between two or more adults. And no, being drunk at the time will not get you out of it... we will be checking the tapes to find out who created what mess during the party and you _will_ be cleaning it up.' Seto's going to love that one," said Mokuba openly laughing.

He hated Christmas parties, and not having to pay the janitors extra to clean up after them was going to amuse his cranky brother.

"I know right? All we're doing is forcing them to be 'responsible' adults or they can find a new job. Besides, you have to pity the poor janitors, especially when they're cleaning up after _those_ sort of messes... it would take hours for the smell of bleach and industrial cleaners to dissipate," said Usagi, eyes sparkling with mischief.

Mokuba cackled. That might deter some of the more _sober_ idiots, but not the really drunk ones.

Kaiba, when he read the office e-mail, had to blink twice at the "rule" being imposed before he openly snorted. He had to read it twice, but each time his amusement stayed.

Mokuba walked in and didn't have to ask why he was amused.

"Remind me to give her a raise," he said, snorting.

"Considering she's lasted six months without doing more than squeaking when you bark at her for being too slow and actually keeps the idiots away from you, she deserves it," said Mokuba dryly.

"Who put her in charge of the Christmas party though? She's still a minor."

"So are you, brother. Apparently she was chosen because she had the most free time...though I had to help her set up the office e-mail so everyone got it. She even made sure that the party rooms would avoid all the areas you'd be in so you won't have to socialize unless you wanted to," said Mokuba.

Kaiba looked again at the floor plan for the party. There were three floors designated for the rather large-scale party...the highest one being two floors _below_ where he would be working that night, which meant the noise level would be minimal and he wouldn't have to go near the drunken idiots. And she had cut out the usual foolishness of the idiots bringing booze by simply ordering it right off the bat. That meant their intake would mostly be limited to what was already available and the spiked punch.

After all, why buy booze when it was being provided for free?

"...Definitely giving Usagi a raise," he muttered.


	2. Chapter 2

**Before I forget... Usagi will NOT have a dueling deck and most of this is going to be action that happens BETWEEN dueling. I cannot write a duel to save my life, and I've always been more of a collector than a player. On an unrelated note I have 26 completed chapters of this.**

* * *

Usagi wasn't the only one staring at the bizarre showdown between the two "dragons" as she had mentally dubbed them. Mokuba's jaw had dropped so wide that he was having trouble closing it in disbelief.

Why, you might ask?

Usagi had invited her boss to spend Christmas at her house (Kaiba had opted to rent a hotel room, rather than risk staying overnight) and at some point they had run into Hibari Kyouya, aka the reason why she was able to survive Kaiba's wrath.

The second Hibari saw Kaiba, there was an immediate tension as the two sized each other up.

Mokuba was just shocked that Usagi wasn't kidding in the least when she said she dealt with a much more violent and bloodthirsty version of his brother in her home town. He never thought he'd meet someone who had the same aura his brother did on a bad day.

"Wao. You're acceptable, carnivore," said Hibari after a moment.

Kaiba smirked in return.

"Oh god... there's two of them now..." said Mokuba horrified and amused at the same time.

"This is why your brother doesn't scare me in the least. Hibari-san is way more terrifying because he doesn't discriminate about genders when he bites someone to death," deadpanned Usagi amused.

"Bites?" repeated Mokuba in disbelief.

"His favorite catchphrase is to claim he will 'bite to death' for any number of reasons. Which usually involves someone getting their ass handed to them via his tonfas. He's leagues above the lackeys the idiot board of directors hires as bodyguards... I bet he could beat all of them up and only feel lightly winded, if that," said Usagi without hesitation.

Hibari smirked at the open praise of his skills.

Kaiba smirked.

"Now there's an idea. I know half of those idiots are double dipping and some of them are absolutely pathetic. And a competent bodyguard is hard to find," said Kaiba.

"Not interested," said Hibari.

"You would get paid for biting fake carnivores to death and humiliating the ones they have, as well as scaring the hell out of their board simply by being there," Usagi said simply. "Plus I'm sure that the Boss has no interest in trying to interfere in your territory."

"I don't like to crowd with weaklings, small rabbit," said Hibari giving her a stare down.

"His favorite animal is a dragon and he scares his employees almost as much as you scare the citizens of Namimori simply by existing. At the very least you can get free entertainment simply by walking up behind people and scowling at them like he does and possibly making them faint from the horror of there being two of you," said Usagi dryly. Mokuba was nodding in absolute agreement, his shock giving way to an evil grin.

"...Tempting."

"There are no uniform requirements and I mostly just want you to keep the rabbit and my brother from being kidnapped by idiots," said Kaiba.

Hibari blinked.

"Acceptable, carnivore," said Hibari.

"We should really stock up on the disposable cameras for later, right Mokuba-kun?" said Usagi grinning. He nodded emphatically, his evil grin wide.

This was going to be _hilarious._

* * *

Mokuba and Usagi were outright cackling while Kaiba just looked plain smug as they set Hibari on the worst troublemakers from the Christmas parties.

No one _dared_ to skip out on the clean up when the first idiot tried it...and was promptly bitten to death with zero sympathy from the Boss.

The fools had been warned that they would have to clean up their own damn mess.

But the best part, the absolutely _best_ part, was the fact people were slowly starting to realize Hibari was cut from an almost identical cloth as Seto Kaiba himself.

Except this one was far more violent.

"I'm increasing your raise, little rabbit," said Kaiba once he had his fill of the misery of fools.

"Eh? Raise?" she said confused.

Mokuba snickered.

"You lasted a full half year even after big brother snarled at you more than once, and passed the loyalty test. Then you introduced him to someone who can provide endless entertainment _and_ scare the hell out of those leeches on the board of directors. Anyone who can pull _that_ off more than deserves a raise," explained Mokuba.

Usagi blushed, which had Kaiba eyeing her oddly. The little rabbit was decidedly...cute...when she was flustered.

Hibari came back several hours later looking _very_ pleased with himself.

"Just think, the next board meeting is in two days," said Usagi grinning.

Mokuba cackled outright. This was going to be great!

"Quick! Let's start setting up the cameras so we can catch all of it for later!" he said, dragging Usagi off.

Hibari and Kaiba sized each other up.

Kaiba handed him a small wad of bills. Kyouya smirked as he accepted the payment.

It was nice to be paid for ending his own boredom. He would have to thank the little rabbit for the entertainment.

(In China Fon had a horrible feeling go down his back. Something absolutely terrifying had happened, and it involved his nephew. Except it didn't feel as though Kyouya was in danger, oddly enough.)

* * *

 _Two days later..._

Usagi was desperately trying not to laugh, and Mokuba wasn't much better.

It was official. Usagi had created the Unholy Alliance between dragons.

It was the most...peaceful...board meeting he had ever had with these "leeches" as Mokuba so happily referred to their board of directors. All because he brought in a new bodyguard for his little brother.

He had to put up with the rent-a-thugs these idiots always insisted on. They had no room to complain if he happened to hire someone by far more competent.

Kaiba's lips twitched upward with anticipation.

Competent and _entertaining_.

Seeing a sixteen year old beat the living hell out of ten adult men who specialized in being little more than hired thugs for scum just made his day.

He knew the bastards were obviously double-dipping when it came to their contracts, but they weren't his guards so he ignored them.

"Wao. You didn't tell me that their _guards_ were so spineless. I barely had a work out," said Kyouya...though he was smirking evilly.

This "body guarding" thing wasn't too bad at all. He got paid to end his boredom and keep an eye on a small animal from his territory. That and he got to match himself with another carnivore who was so very entertaining, odd obsession with a herbivore's card game aside.

He could respect the man's favorite "monster" though. It was hard not to appreciate an apex carnivore such as the Blue Eyes White Dragon.

* * *

"...Little rabbit, what exactly is this supposed to be?" asked Kaiba twitching at the papers in his hands. It wasn't the terrible test scores that had him appalled, it was the notations left by the so-called teacher.

Whoever graded this was beyond incompetent.

"My math test. Nezu- _sensei_ (she said the word like it was a joke) is a complete jerk that loves to mock me because I have the lowest grades in class. He's always bragging about the fact he came from a high level college like it's important without being able to teach competently," said Usagi annoyed.

Kaiba twitched. He knew her grades were bad and barely passing, but what if the problem wasn't with her ability to study but incompetent teachers? Some of these answers were half-correct, but they were marked as all wrong without even bothering to explain what part she didn't get right.

Instead it was full of ridicule and negative diatribe from someone even he could tell was highly incompetent simply from the wording alone.

He needed to have a word with Hibari about this.

 _A few hours later..._

"The teachers at the school are barely acceptable, and the only reason I haven't dealt with the issue is because I have an agreement with the principal to limit my attacks to the students who break the rules or crowd against me," said Hibari flatly. "I've had numerous complaints about that fool for months."

Kaiba twitched.

"Which means the little rabbits grades might not actually be a sign of her actual intelligence."

"The fact that the lesser herbivores and the fake carnivores in the school bully and harass her don't help either."

"Hypothetically how would you react to transferring to the school I attend with the little rabbit?"

"Why?"

"It's boring and you'd have all the entertainment of forcing the Disciplinary Committee to actually do their jobs. And if you happened to skip in order to remind the idiots back in Namimori who's boss I could honestly care less so long as you keep my brother and the little rabbit safe."

Kyouya's grin was terrifying. He could expand his territory and kill his boredom. Though if he thought about it, Usagi was a part of his original territory, so it was less about "expanding" and more "insuring" his territory was safe.

The girl was a small animal from _his_ school after all.

(In China, Fon had another weird feeling that something had happened to Kyouya, but it wasn't a bad thing. More like a weird sense of relief which had him finishing his assignment early to go find out what the hell was going on with his nephew.)

* * *

Yugi Muto wasn't very impressive to look at...unless you were talking about his hair which despite what the adults might think was in fact natural. His grandfather had to bring out old baby photos for them to believe it, but by now no one really asked questions about it.

To be honest he had always wondered why it was so weird too.

So when a girl wearing honest-to-god bunny ears and an actual tail walked in, he barely batted an eye.

He'd seen weirder in the mirror.

And then came the terrifying part.

There was a second transfer in their class with her, and this guy reminded him way too much of Seto Kaiba. Worse, he had all the same markings as a violent delinquent, and Yugi had the _worst_ luck with those. It wasn't his fault he was so short! It was genetic!

"We have two new students with us. I would like you to greet..."

"Sorano Usagi! It's nice to meet you!"

The girl had a rather friendly, cheerful smile which combined with the ears made her look like a happy bunny. It was a cute image and something about her made everyone have their eyes on her expectantly.

"Hmph. Hibari Kyouya," said the colder teen. He looked dismissive and bored.

Yugi made a note to stay as far away from him as possible.

"Ehehehe... word of warning, Hibari doesn't like people crowding him very much and he will react badly if you do. I'm only saying it as a disclaimer though..." said Usagi very nervously.

"Herbivores should know their place, little rabbit," said Hibari flatly. His eyes were glinting with the promise of violence. Yugi had to fight back a shudder. He hated fighting.

Though near the end of the last period (which was PE, and Yugi was planning to skip since it was basketball) he found himself cornered by the Disciplinary Committee.

They were planning to hassle him for "protection money".

Yugi scrunched up his face, preparing for the hit that never came.

Instead he found himself hiding behind a very angry Usagi and a bored looking Hibari.

"Wao. Not even a full day and already I have new toys to play with," smirked Hibari. "The Disciplinary Committee here is a pathetic pack of hyenas."

Yugi watched with amazement/horror as Hibari proceeded to beat the older and bigger students to a bloody pulp with terrifying ease. He almost flinched when he felt the small pat on the head.

"Small animals should be protected."

Usagi openly giggled at Yugi's confusion.

"Hibari-san is scary... but he goes easier on small animals and little children. It's the bigger, louder kids he tends to go after more," explained Usagi. "Give him a week and I guarantee that the Disciplinary Committee here will fall under the same way the one back home did."

"Wait... which one am I?" asked Yugi confused.

"You fall under the category as small animal," said Usagi. "Which means as long as you're never late and don't break any of the rules he actually cares about, you'll never have to fear being bitten to death by Hibari. You're not interesting enough for him to challenge."

"...What about Kaiba-san?" asked Yugi.

"They're dragons sharing hunting grounds. Mostly because the Boss' territory is his company and to a larger extent his brother, while Hibari's territory is Namimori and the students he protects as head of the Disciplinary Committee there."

"Why's he in Domino then?"

"Who said he had to quit his old job as head of the Committee back home? As far as he's concerned, he's mostly here to insure that one of his small animals is protected from any annoying carnivores that are trying to use me to get to the boss," said Usagi.

Yugi thought that one over. Yeah...he was having trouble seeing anyone convincing someone as scary as Hibari-san to do anything he didn't want to do.

"I have to ask... is that hair natural or do you style it?" she said finally.

"It's natural. My gramps had to bring baby photos before my middle school teachers believed me when I said I wasn't styling it... I ended up having to bring them myself for high school because the teachers threatened to give me a buzz cut,"said Yugi tiredly. Then he blinked. "Wait, boss?"

"I'm Seto Kaiba's personal secretary. I accidentally wore these ears to the interview, and then his brother told me that no one would care about the headband since my main job was to keep people trying to steal his precious time away by forcing them to schedule conflicting appointments. My real name isn't Sorano Usagi, but I agreed to use it since I'd rather my old nickname never followed me here," admitted Usagi. She pulled at one of her ears. "I consider these my good luck charm at this point."

Yugi worked her name through his head.

"Was your real name worse than being literally named 'Sky Bunny'?" he asked.

"No, but the moniker that most of the students at my old school was awful. Everyone knew me as 'No-Good'."

Yugi winced. Yeah, he could relate to why she didn't want that particular name to follow her here.

"Do you like games?" he asked hopefully.

"Not the violent ones, but I do like puzzles. I never really had friends before I was hired by Kaiba-san," admitted Usagi.

Yugi perked up at that. Maybe now he'd have someone who'd play with him during recess. He always brought games with him, but everyone always thought they were too childish.

By the end of the week, everyone was terrified of Hibari Kyouya, and Yugi had a new best friend who didn't mind spending lunch playing games with him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Just a reminder that I do have a go fund me page. Just add _tsukis-vet-visit_ after the .com part. It's alright if you can't donate today...sharing helps as well!**

* * *

Yugi's school life definitely went up considerably when Usagi joined his class. Yes, her friend/bodyguard Hibari was scary as all get out, but he tended to ignore Yugi when he was in the middle of biting the "annoying crowding herbivores" to death. He also caught a glimpse of Hibari's right hand... a man by the name of Kusakabe who wore the rather outdated pompadour hairstyle but was scarily efficient. He had taken the news Hibari planned to take over yet another school's worth of delinquents in stride.

On an unrelated note, Yugi had noticed that the thugs who had made up the school's DC had become much better organized save for the now very rare hold outs who were beyond angry that an outsider had swooped in and dismantled their group of delinquents and forcibly brought them to line. From what he understood, the belief was that if they stepped out of line, Hibari would be on them like a hawk to deliver a very painful reminder of why Usagi jokingly referred to him as a "dragon".

Yugi could believe it. He could absolutely see Hibari as a territorial dragon, one who had a weird obsession with keeping order and had a really weird friendship with Seto Kaiba.

Mostly because again, as Usagi had pointed out, their territories didn't even remotely clash in any way. Hibari had no interest in large corporations, and Kaiba was only attending school because he didn't want to spend _all_ his time at his office where his board could ambush him during daylight hours.

And if the smallest kid in class (Usagi was a very, very close second) happened to giggle evilly when he saw the blackmail photos Usagi and Mokuba had taken when the Board was introduced to the "new bodyguard" as well as the adults who tried to skip out on cleaning, well Usagi said nothing but was suspiciously pleased with herself.

Yugi liked Usagi-chan. She was nicer than Anzu, but not overbearing. It almost felt like she was a big sister of sorts. Not that he'd ever dare say something like that to her. He didn't even notice the bunny ears anymore.

The chaos all started when the leader of the "hold outs" from the previous DC decided to target Yugi again.

No one ever said that the thug who made up the previous committee were smart. Everyone knew Yugi was very attached to the odd bunny girl, and if she saw someone bullying him then she was very quick to mention it to Hibari.

Who would then bite the offender to death in short order.

In short Yugi's bullying problem had become virtually nonexistent due to the fact he was acknowledged as Usagi's best friend.

And she had that scary dragon to drive off the worst and force the school into something close to order.

In any case, Usagi and Hibari were noticeably absent that day... Kaiba had a business conference, and had upgraded Usagi to his "personal assistant" which meant she had to deal with his schedule on top of scaring off the least important people demanding more of his time, as such both of them had been brought along to the meeting... which meant Ushio felt confident enough to try and reclaim his old role as head of the DC.

Yugi was horrified when he found out that Jonouchi and Honda from his class had been beaten up over harmless roughhousing. It was even worse because he knew Usagi-nee and Hibari wouldn't be back until the day after tomorrow... the conference lasted three days and they had left only yesterday.

On the plus side, he finally completed the puzzle his grandpa had given him one year. On the down side, he hoped that these frequent black outs wouldn't suddenly become a "thing".

* * *

 _A few days later..._

Hibari immediately honed in on the tiny kitten that was Yugi. He normally didn't pay any attention to the kitten that had befriended _his_ rabbit. Except there was a subtle aura around him that felt off. And he was wearing that gaudy necklace.

"Ah! So you finally completed your puzzle?" asked Usagi.

"Yeah! It's really weird though... I completely blacked out after I did and the next morning Ushio-san was being taken away by the ambulance."

"...Yugi, what exactly happened while we were in Berlin?" asked Usagi slowly.

Yugi winced.

"And why are those two suddenly friendly with you?" she continued, giving him a hard stare.

"Ushio beat them up saying something about protection money and I let him target me instead of letting him hit them further," said Yugi sheepishly.

Hibari growled. It would seem he would have to tighten his hold on the hyenas of the school if Ushio thought that behavior would have gone unpunished. The small group of fake carnivores were going to be gone by the end of the week.

"Well I'm glad you're alright," said Usagi, hugging him briefly.

"How was Berlin anyway?"

"Outside of a minor incident because of a prank by Mokuba, it was rather boring," said Usagi.

"Prank?" repeated Yugi.

Usagi blushed.

"I'd really rather not talk about it."

"Mokuba slipped rum into her soda and made sure to mix it really well before she took a drink, and she got tipsy enough to kiss her boss on the cheek," said Hibari dismissively. Kaiba had gone completely red in the face before he checked her drink when he registered his brother laughing his ass off.

The fact she also kissed Kyouya on the cheek was a bit of a surprise, but he kept his silence.

Mokuba had a rather odd look on his face when he saw that.

"That reminds me, Mokuba gave me a surprise gift for the fact I helped him with his prank on his brother."

"Wait... you knew he spiked your drink?" said Hibari suddenly.

Usagi checked to make sure her boss wasn't around or within ear shot. He wasn't.

"The one Kaiba checked was the spiked drink. Mokuba had two cups and made sure that I got the untainted one. He wanted to liven up the boring trip a little before we left and I agreed to help."

Hibari started blushing horribly.

"So you..."

"I wasn't drunk. I just figured I wouldn't miss the opportunity when it presented itself," said Usagi shrugging. "No way would I touch alcohol any time before I graduate high school. I've seen what it does to _adults_ every time my so-called father bothers to show up at home."

Iemitsu Sawada went from almost tolerable to a complete moron whenever he started drinking. Like hell was she testing if she would suffer the same fate any time soon!

"So what did Mokuba give you?" asked Yugi, honestly curious.

Usagi beamed at him, before opening her bag. Most of her books were digital (a gift from Kaiba since it meant that there was zero chance of them being 'defaced' like her last set) so her bag was usually empty.

Except she opened it up to reveal... a lop-eared rabbit?

"Poor thing was drenched in a dirty puddle and shivering when Mokuba found it."

The rabbit crawled out of her bag and onto her shoulder before settling between the rabbit ears.

"Kyu~!"

It had marshmallow white fur, almost crimson red eyes and pink paws. The tail was rather long, almost the same size as the floppy ears.

"I'm calling him Angel!" said Usagi proudly.

( **A/N: He looks like With from DNAngel, acts like Angel from MLP. Hence the name.)**

Yugi, being far less "manly" than any of the other guys in class, cooed at it. Angel was positively adorable.

"Hmph. A rabbit for a rabbit," said Hibari amused.

He wasn't expecting the sudden kick to the face. Or the positively _evil_ look that the "rabbit" was giving him.

He glared back and Angel gave him a wicked smirk.

Yugi and Usagi stared, before she giggled.

She had a weird feeling that this was the _hilarious_ beginning of a rivalry between the rabbit and the demon prefect.

Either way she scooped up the docile rabbit into her bag again, before giving it some strawberries. Angel was too well behaved to make a mess in her bag.

As it turned out, Angel was a vicious little thing. If he even _thought_ there was a risk of violence around his master he started using his surprisingly powerful back legs to deliver some nasty kicks...to the open amusement of everyone except Hibari.

Mokuba had to desperately attempt to hide his laughter whenever he saw the pathetic thugs that the board kept rehiring as their guards getting their ass kicked by a _rabbit_ of all things. The rabbit was _hilarious_ in his opinion and he had mostly saved it out of pity and because it reminded him of Usagi.

The ten year old had a great deal of amusement and fun setting the surprisingly violent rabbit on many, many people. Especially the board of directors who could be seen mumbling about the "white demon with red eyes".

* * *

Usagi heard someone clearing their throat, and rather than look around she got up from her desk and looked down.

There, on the floor was a very adorable toddler-sized boy with a red pacifier and an face that was too similar to Hibari to be a coincidence.

She blinked a bit.

"Do you have an appointment with the boss, or are you looking for Hibari?"

"The second," he said politely.

"...Would you like a lift to where he's currently napping?"

"Yes, please," he replied.

He was surprisingly quick at jumping onto her shoulder, having used the desk as a boost.

"You're taking this surprisingly well," he commented.

"So long as you keep any destruction outside the building and far from where I would have to care about it, it's not my problem. Besides, it's pretty obvious you're not actually a child...most children would be overwhelmed by having to come up this high and past so many adults. And while some of them are rather oblivious I'm sure security would have been called at some point if you were an actual child...if for no other reason than the fact that the only person under twelve working here is the boss's brother and co-owner," said Usagi dryly. "Ergo you are not a child at all, but quite possibly a midget or just naturally short."

The 'toddler' chuckled.

The second Hibari saw the 'toddler' he growled.

"Annoying carnivore, what are you doing acting so friendly around _my_ rabbit?" he snarled.

"I merely came to check up on you. I was worried when I found you had been commuting to another city entirely and spending days away from your territory," said Fon.

For a Cloud, especially one like Kyouya, to wander so far away from their established territory was big.

And out of the reasons for it, only a few were relatively _positive_.

At first Fon had been amused/suspicious when he learned Kyouya was "protecting a small animal from his territory", especially a female one. He had worried that Kyouya had finally discovered his hormones and was being drawn away by a girl who only wanted a powerful bodyguard she could control.

The tiny little rabbit girl (and he had been openly amused by the ears if nothing else) was so far below that suspicions that he started to wonder what the small rabbit had on his nephew that he followed her here.

That is, until he felt her flames. She was either Latent or they were chained at a young age, but he'd recognize the feel of Flames anywhere.

Kyouya had found a _Sky._ One strong enough to catch and hold his interest long enough to draw him from his territory for extended periods.

And if that wasn't amusing enough, it seemed his nephew had joined an unholy alliance with a Latent Cloud over the little rabbit. It was rare for Clouds to even tolerate being part of a normal set of Guardians (unless they were inverted like Skull), but it was unheard of for _two_ Clouds of almost equal strength to tolerate the presence of another. At the very least one of them would have attempted to chase the other out.

It wasn't until Kyouya was left partially defeated and sulking that Fon decided to talk to the little rabbit Kyouya had found.

She seemed mostly amused and had a second smaller rabbit on her head.

* * *

Fon was cheerfully eating some of his native foods with the little rabbit and the little fox (Mokuba had found this description hilarious and loved it immediately since kitsune were notorious for causing mischief) while the two Clouds sulked at another table.

He would openly admit to choking on his tea with amusement the second he heard what Usagi called his nephew. And how she explained why the two Clouds got along.

"Hibari and Kaiba are like two dragons that share the same hunting grounds. Except their domains are completely different so they can pretend the other doesn't exist."

"Oh?" said Fon with open amusement.

"Hibari likes to deal with the peasants on the ground while Kaiba likes to deal with the annoying kings who live above the clouds. They came to an agreement to deal with the earth and sky so long as the other acknowledged their dominion over their particular domain," said Usagi sipping a milk shake.

Mokuba snorted.

"Sounds about right. Kyouya likes to discipline the delinquents and gangs more than he cares for the corporate world, while my brother is usually too busy dealing with the fat cats that are always trying to eat each other alive to deal with the middle and lower class," said Mokuba. Though he eyed Usagi with mischief in his eyes. "Of course they both seem to have an rather amusing interest in Usagi-nee."

Fon snorted as well.

Interest was a tame way of putting it.

"So are you a martial artist, Fon-san?" asked Usagi cheerfully.

"Indeed. In fact I know over a hundred different styles, some of which are very obscure."

Mokuba grinned.

"What a coincidence. Angel is a bit of a martial artist as well. I think he mastered Bunny-fu at some point," said Mokuba with a straight face.

"Angel?"

"Usagi-nee's rabbit. He has something of a rival with Hibari," said Mokuba.

Fon blinked, before a sly grin came upon his face.

" _Really_ now..."

Kyouya had the feeling of impending doom go down his spine. He did not like it.

That feeling panned out less than a week later when he saw that damn pet rabbit using some very _familiar_ moves on the rent-a-thugs.

Of course Fon would find his unspoken rivalry with a rabbit funny enough to train said small animal in how to fight even more efficiently just to annoy him.


	4. Chapter 4

Anzu and the others stared at Usagi.

"So let me get this straight. The Demon Prefect's uncle found out about his rivalry with your rabbit...so he taught the furball how to fight even more?" said Honda slowly.

"He found it rather amusing, considering Hibari happens to like small animals."

Yugi looked at Angel who was in his lap happily eating strawberries. He loved the fruit so Yugi made a point to bring them whenever he could.

Next to Usagi (and to a lesser extent Mokuba), Yugi was Angel's favorite person. The fact Yugi was quite good when it came to the ear scratching didn't hurt.

"Say, where should we meet up on Saturday?" asked Usagi.

She had a day off, and Domino had more to offer when it came to entertainment for teenagers compared to Namimori.

"How about Burgerworld?" said Yugi enthusiastically.

Anzu froze... but Usagi had a job so she could move away once she graduated school too so maybe they wouldn't laugh if they knew.

"Uh... if we meet at Burgerworld then we'll have to wait until at least three before I could join you," said Anzu.

"Why?" asked Jonouchi.

"I work as a waitress there. I was planning to ask for that day off, but if we're meeting there then my boss will only ask why I skipped when I'm perfectly fine," said Anzu sighing. "I'm trying to earn cash so I can go to school in America later after I graduate."

Usagi nodded in sympathy.

"Yeah, Kaiba would be pretty angry if he found out I tried to skip work only to learn I was trying to meet my friends. It's easier to wait for your shift to end and not have to explain it to the boss later," said Usagi.

Anzu was relieved that her friends understood, and were willing to wait for her to get off before they went to do most of the group activities.

"Well, how about we meet at Yugi's house and play some of his board games or something until Anzu gets off work?" suggested Usagi.

Yugi perked up at that suggestion. He never got to play games with anyone, at least not until Usagi came to his school.

"I have _Mario Kart_ and a few other games," he offered.

"I'm in!" said Jonouchi.

"I'm sure I could ask Kaa-san to help me make snacks," offered Usagi. "She's been pretty happy since I transferred schools, even if it means I'm away from home most days."

"How far do you live anyway?" asked Anzu.

She had never seen Usagi in town before now.

"Officially I live in Namimori. Unofficially I was given a small apartment so I wouldn't have to waste so much time commuting between home, school and work. Mama doesn't mind so much since I call her almost every night when I'm not back home, and I almost always spend my days off with her."

They all stared at her. Namimori was at least an hour and a half train ride (with two stops) away from Domino.

"Exactly why are you working all the way out here instead of there?"

Yugi winced.

"She has a bad nickname that follows her around in Namimori. It's why she changed her name on the legal papers to get rid of it," said Yugi.

"You would too if your father was insane enough to name you after a camellia flower," said Usagi crossly. "At least Usagi is somewhat dignified and can't be easily turned into a demeaning nickname."

Dame-Usagi didn't sound nearly as catchy as "Dame Tsubaka".

"Ouch. What about your friends? How did they react?" asked Anzu.

"What friends? Yugi had more than I did before I transferred here, even when the bullying situation was pretty bad. No one wanted to befriend the no good 'Tsubaka', after all my reputation might be contagious or something," said Usagi annoyed.

Her irritation bled out when Angel jumped to her lap and she started stroking his silky fur.

The others winced. It was clear Usagi had little to no reason to like her home town.

"So why did you get a job with Kaiba of all people?"

"I wanted to make enough money to move out the second I graduated. I just got lucky that he remembered me because I accidentally grabbed the wrong headband for my interview. Now it's my lucky charm," said Usagi cheerfully. "Besides, it was either that or keep washing dishes for the best sushi restaurant in Namimori."

"Well, Namimori's loss is our gain! I mean come on, what other school can claim they have such a fluffy mascot?" asked Jonouchi.

"You mean Angel?"

"He means you," said Honda dryly. "Between your ears, your looks and the natural 'innocence' you give off, your unofficial title among the other students of all grades is the school mascot."

Usagi went completely red all over.

"What?!"

* * *

Nana Sawada was _not_ as oblivious as she looked. She had seen how miserable her daughter was and was perfectly aware that Tsubaki was merely waiting for graduation before she left Namimori and never came back.

And considering the misery she faced every day in this damn town, Nana didn't blame her one bit.

Then a miracle happened. Tsubaki managed to get a job in another city, and less than a month later there was a tentative smile on her face. A real one.

Slowly but surely, Tsubaki (now called Usagi because of her "lucky" headband) started smiling again. And when she finally met the young man responsible for saving her daughter from the misery she had been suffering for so long, she could understand why Tsu-chan called him a dragon.

Seto Kaiba was very much a proud dragon. One that had clearly taken an interest in the "little rabbit" that was her daughter.

She had shared a conspirator's look with little Mokuba and the two grinned. It was pretty obvious that the 'proud dragon' was at the beginning stages of a potential romance.

"Mama, I'm home!" called Tsubaki.

"Tsu-chan, welcome back!" said Nana cheerfully. At least her _daughter_ thought her mother was worth coming home for. Unlike _some_ people she could mention.

(In Italy Iemitsu got a chill down his back and spilled ink all over the papers, pissing off Lal Mirch and Oregano in the process because he was supposed to go over them.)

"Mama, I was wondering if you could help me make some snacks. A few friends of mine are going to hang out on Saturday and meet up with another one once she gets off work at three. So we're going to play some games until then," asked Tsubaki.

Nana brightened. Switching schools and getting a job had been very good for her daughter. She was actually _enjoying_ her life for once instead of being miserable cooped up in her room.

Plus this qualified as bonding time with her daughter.

"Of course, Tsu-chan! Now what do you think they'll like?" she said cheerfully.

"Well Honda is allergic to peanut butter, and I know Yugi really likes strawberries..." said Tsubaki, her ears quivering. They were looking a bit frayed from how long her daughter had been wearing them...perhaps it was time to get a replacement set?

"So strawberry cake and perhaps some tarts then~!" said Nana. "I think we have enough to make banana bread too, come to think of it."

Tsubaki loved her banana bread.

Nana frowned when she saw the state of their fridge...the strawberries had already been eaten by Angel.

"Oh dear. Tsu-chan, could you go get some more strawberries from the grocery? Angel seems to have eaten them all."

Tsubaki picked up her gluttonous rabbit and put him on her head. He barely even twitched as he snuggled deeper into her hair between the ears.

It was a good thing she brought him, because halfway home she ran into trouble.

"What do we have here? The loser Tsubaka and her freaky ears," sneered Mochida. He had been one of the worst jerks in her old school.

"What's the matter, Dame Tsubaka? Your new school kick you out already?" said one of his friends.

Usagi flinched. She wasn't good at fighting and these boys were all in the kendo club. Worse, one of them had the bamboo sword on him.

She took a step back, but instead of leaving her alone they took it as a sign to torment her like old times.

A sudden twitch on her head reminded her she wasn't alone. Not anymore. She could feel Angel wake up and tense up.

Well, time for these jerks to find out that even a rabbit will attack when provoked.

"Angel... get them."

The white rabbit sprang off her head and started kicking the boys. The little bunny was a vicious fighter, and the trio didn't stand a chance against him.

Especially not when Hibari's uncle was able to upgrade the furry animal's fighting skills purely to irritate his nephew...and because he found the fact Kyouya had a rivalry with a rabbit of all things hilarious.

Angel hopped up her shoulder and settled next to her neck looking very smug.

She promptly dug into the bag to pull out some blueberries that she had bought as a treat for him. The rabbit accepted the quiet praise of his mistress as they continued on home.

Needless to say the bullies refused to explain _what_ had kicked their ass so thoroughly when asked by their teammates and coach.

* * *

 _The next day..._

"Holy cow... your mom is a really good cook!" said Jonouchi when he saw the spread. There was even a blueberry pie in there.

"I helped with the crust and the toppings, but most of it was done by Mama. She was really happy I had asked her for help making something for my friends."

Mokuba was pretty pleased with the apple tarts she gave him, and she had seen Kaiba nibbling on the blueberry ones she left for him. For Kyouya she would make some hamburger steak for lunch sometime.

Usagi blushed whenever she heard the boys praise her mother's cooking. It was nice to be appreciated.

While it was a Saturday, she noticed that Yugi's grandfather occasionally checked up on them whenever the two taller boys got too loud. He seemed almost as pleased as her mother had been that his grandson brought home actual friends who were nice to him.

He seemed to be really happy seeing the smile on his grandson's face. Even if he noticed the that odd girl with the rabbit ear headband acted more like a "big sister" than a potential girlfriend, he could live with that. Yugi was actually enjoying his youth, and having a surrogate big sister figure he could trust and talk to freely had done wonders for his confidence.

Though considering how attached Yugi was to that odd rabbit the girl had, perhaps he should invest in a pet for him. Something as low maintenance like a bird or a rabbit of his own.

Finally it was almost three (most of the treats had long been devoured, though they did manage to save some for Anzu) so the group went to find the last member.

Since they still had room for it, Usagi bought everyone lunch.

It was as they were sitting down to enjoy their food that it happened.

An escaped convict managed to reach the restaurant and held Usagi hostage. She had been passing by the door to return from using the restroom, only to be grabbed.

She froze as she felt the knife against her neck.

She was blindfolded, but there was a strange sense of calm in her mind. Like she knew that she could escape and that everything would be okay. If her eyes had been visible then her friends would have seen her normally warm brown had slowly bled into a blazing amber like fire.

Inside her soul something was reacting to the life or death situation she was in. something that had been locked away for years, demanding to be free.

It had remained dormant for the most part because of all the stress she had been under, keeping her alive by healing her injuries just a little bit faster than normal. But now that most of that stress had been removed and she was able to relax without new injuries, all that energy had been diverted to breaking the seal she was under.

And with her life actively being threatened by an outside force, cracks started to form. It was slow at first, but it was quickly gaining speed as those cracks started to form even faster, becoming bigger in the process.

Then that force felt the flare of energy from a new source. An unexpected source.

It had acknowledged Yugi Muto as a potential equal. Not as strong as the one inside Usagi, but it could be one day if he ever gained enough resolve.

This new entity was ancient, dark (but not evil), and _powerful._

This person who existed in the same body as Yugi was like the darkness to his light. However unlike Yugi, most of it's potential had been devoured as compensation for the shadows and the powers that came with it.

It _needed_ Yugi to survive, because it had no Dying Will of it's own to sustain it's dark energies.

Sensing that the issue would be resolved soon enough, the force slowly subsided. But the cracks remained.

More to the point, some were big enough that the energy that had been forcibly contained for far too long was starting to seep through those cracks and breath the first free air since the sealing. And the more that seeped out, the bigger those cracks would become.

"Man that was scary! You okay Usagi?" asked Jou.

She nodded, though she was giving Yugi concerned looks.

"Are you alright Yugi? You sounded really weird earlier when you did something to that convict."

"I did?" said Yugi in surprise. He had been so worried he blacked out during the entire thing.

"Your voice sounded off and the tone was completely different. Not to mention the way it felt being that close to you. It was like you were a completely different person!" said Usagi worried.

"I had no idea. I blacked out at some point," admitted Yugi with concern.

"That is not good," said Usagi. "But there's nothing to do about it for now. I think we should try again tomorrow once the excitement of today wears off."

"I agree. I'm sure I can convince my boss to give me tomorrow off after what happened," said Anzu immediately.


	5. Chapter 5

As it turned out, black outs were now a reoccurring theme in Yugi's life. So much so that Usagi became concerned about them enough to get Fon's contact information from Kyouya.

For some reason no one else seemed to notice the bizarre personality shift Yugi underwent every time he was in actual danger. Or the odd flares that felt like pure darkness that seemed to originate from his puzzle, which no longer looked like an odd trinket he always wore and seemed much more ominous the more Yugi kept blacking out.

Fon arrived within a few months and the moment he saw Usagi he seemed pleased by something. He wouldn't say why though and she had bigger concerns.

"So you're saying your friend has unexplained black outs every time he's in danger and there's the feeling of something dark but not malevolent that comes from his puzzle the few times it's happened around you," said Fon frowning.

"It doesn't seem like the black outs are harming him... but the mere fact he's having them _and_ that it comes with such a massive shift in his personality worries me," said Usagi. Her ears were quivering... Fon had found it rather fascinating that Usagi could somehow manipulate simple costume ears like they were real.

"I suppose I could look into it," agreed Fon. He could feel the relief from Usagi.

However the second he came near the "puzzle" in question he nearly reared back from being that close to it.

If that thing wasn't similar to the Sky Pacifier, he'd quit martial arts. The item was literally _devouring_ the boy's Sky Flames, though it left enough for him to function normally and only seemed to be taking the parts that were naturally sloughed off.

He was even fortunate enough to witness the 'shift' Usagi had been so concerned about.

How people _missed_ the kid growing several inches in height, or the fact that some of his bangs spiked upwards against the red half of his hair, or that his aura suddenly shifted from meek and subservient to arrogant and authoritative was a mystery.

This other spirit definitely knew he had a watcher though.

" _Who's there?"_

The last time he heard a tone like that, he was around the Emperor of China acting as the neutral voice of the larger Triads.

This was someone who had been a royal in life and knew how to wield the authority that came with it like a second skin.

Fon revealed himself, making sure not to display any signs of aggression. Considering how this 'king' (he was too arrogant for a mere prince) had dealt with the threat he didn't want to take his chances.

"Greetings."

" _Who are you?"_

And why were you spying on me, went the unasked demand.

"I am merely here on behalf of a concerned young woman who was worried about the black outs your...host...goes through every time you take control. She noticed something had changed every time the two of you switched and wanted to make sure that it would not harm him," said Fon calmly.

" _I would never hurt my Hikari,"_ said the king offended at the mere thought.

"Considering the shift between you is rather large, it's surprising more haven't picked up on the fact you're taking control," said Fon dryly. Honestly, why hadn't anyone other than Usagi noticed that there were two different people? "It's rather difficult for someone like Yugi to suddenly develop the royal bearing you have in the span of seconds. I mostly wanted to ascertain that you were a relatively benign spirit not out to steal control from the original host."

The spirit seemed to gaze into Fon's very soul to see if he was being truthful. Fon had nothing to hide... while he was an assassin for the Triads his reasons for being here in Domino were benign and he had no intent of harming the boy in the least.

Something seemed to wash over him. He felt the 'darkness' that Usagi had spoke of when she told him why she called, and he could perfectly understand why she had been alarmed.

It was an all consuming darkness that had no pity or mercy for those it judged and found wanting. It seemed to devour flames, consuming the soul if even a little escaped. Only his iron control over them kept him safe.

His control...and surprisingly enough, the glow of his pacifier which seemed to eat away at the darkness, forcing it back.

The moment passed, and he felt as though he had survived a rather thorough test.

His soul had been judged by the shadows... and while he had darkness in his past it seemed that the shadows had deemed him worthy and allowed him to live. For now at least.

The spirit walked out of the darkened alley which seemed far more ominous after what happened, and onto a busy street. Almost immediately upon reaching that, the spirit relinquished control to the host and Yugi stumbled briefly.

"Are you alright?" asked Fon.

"Fon-san? What am I doing here?" asked Yugi with open confusion.

"I'm afraid you suffered another black out. I'm sure Usagi-chan wouldn't mind making some hot chocolate or perhaps some fresh tea if we visit her while you recover," said Fon calmly.

Yugi didn't really react to the fact Fon used him as a method of transport... between the two of them he had longer legs.

He had been surprised meeting an adult much shorter than he was. It had lifted some of the despair he had about his own tiny height, which had amused Fon somewhat.

* * *

Usagi decided to go with Yugi to retrieve his puzzle from the museum. She had been suspicious of that curator from the get-go, especially his strong interest in the cursed puzzle.

And it _was_ cursed, as Fon had bluntly confirmed. The spirit sealed inside it was benign, but something about it was taking something from Yugi every time it was used. It wasn't harming him (which had relieved most of Yugi's immediate worries the second Fon had said his puzzle was cursed) but something about it was very similar to the odd pacifier Fon wore around his neck.

Unlike Fon however, Yugi could at least remove his puzzle and it wouldn't affect him directly.

Since the spirit seemed to be rather protective of it's host, Yugi decided to keep wearing it for now. But he was definitely more leery of his black outs now.

Fon did have some information they didn't have before though.

Whoever was in the puzzle had to be a king when they were alive, or at the very least royalty. For some reason Yugi grew a few inches every time he took over, and part of his bangs flipped upward to create an odd effect against the red in his hair. There was also a subtle hint of darkness about the spirit, but it wasn't malevolent or evil in nature.

Considering the puzzle was _Egyptian_ in origin, that meant that the spirit in the puzzle was almost certainly a Pharaoh, considering that's what they called their kings back them.

Which meant he had something to work off of when it came to finding out the man's name. It really helped that he could narrow down the general time period, since the puzzle itself was between four to five thousand years old.

"Where's that shady curator?" muttered Usagi.

Then she saw someone who made her freeze.

He looked perfectly ordinary... if you didn't feel the sheer aura around him.

This was someone terrifying. There was no good or evil in his eyes. There was only a merciless impartiality that said he would deliver judgment without any remorse or forgiveness to the guilty.

And he was looking at them with those eyes.

"Ah! My puzzle!" said Yugi, looking at the artifact in the man's hand.

Which was clearly the wrong thing to say, because he went absolutely still and his aura seemed to swirl around him.

Seeing the key about to touch Yugi's forehead, Usagi didn't even think about what she was doing. All she knew was that she had to protect her friend.

The key touched her head instead, and she blacked out.

* * *

 _Usagi's mental scape..._

Shadi blinked when he found himself in the mind of the girl, not the child who had claimed the puzzle...and bore a remarkable resemblance to the Pharaoh who previously owned it.

If he were a normal person he would have found the realm of clouds and the sky rather disconcerting. The girl's heart was pure and untainted by the sins of mortal men. Her mind and soul were as open and accepting as the sky itself, with no judgment on those who came to know her.

And the feel of her soul...it reminded him of the ancient wielders of magic, except hers was by far more concentrated and more vast than even the ancient shadow mages of old.

It took him several moments to register that he was being watched, and not by the innocent girl who hadn't hesitated to jump in front of his judgment for the sake of a friend.

" **You do not belong here, keeper,"** said a voice that was distinctly male in origin.

The scene shifted to something far more dangerous.

There was a man on a throne, with brilliant orange fire blazing like a crown upon his head. His eyes burned with that same fire, and Shadi felt as though for once he was being judged.

"Who are you?"

The man seemed almost amused.

" **Really? A strange foreigner enters the mind of _my_ descendant and you honestly think you should be the one asking that? As for who I am... _We_ are the Blessed Children of the Sky Gods,"**said the man simply.

Shadi went absolutely still. The Blessed Children were a myth, but it was said that certain pharaohs were blessed with the fires of the Sky god and granted six protectors. Each protector would then be granted a unique power over the fires and it always came in a rainbow of colors.

Orange was the rarest, as it was the direct blessing of the Sky god that reign over the other six, but the royal purple came very close.

"Why are you here?"

" **I have always been here, watching from the throne of the Sky. Soon my granddaughter will again begin to blaze with the fires that were so cruelly taken from her. _Now leave_ ,"**he said darkly. This intruder had overstayed his welcome, and only those of his bloodline were allowed in this place.

Shadi found himself rudely kicked out, unaware of the consequences of walking through that particular mind. He quickly redirected his attempts on the smaller boy, the girl too dazed to stop him a second time.

And was once again thrown out after being tested. Except the second spirit was not as 'friendly' about it like the first was.

He would have to be careful going into the minds of these two.

* * *

Usagi had a weird dream that night. It felt like she was wandering in a realm of shadows, where the only light to be seen was coming from _her_.

This place was scary, but not as much as facing the two dragons when both were in a foul mood. Thankfully that had never happened to her _specifically_ but she did feel some iota of pity for the board of directors.

Even Mokuba had winced in sympathy when his brother and Hibari went after them. Though he wished they would do something that they could legally toss them out for so they didn't have to deal with all the power plays that went on.

Kaiba would have fired them _years_ ago, except they had been in power since before he took over and had rooted themselves too deeply for him to kick them out without doing a lot of damage. Not without a massive headache and the inevitable mess as they tried to keep their jobs by dragging up secrets they had been hiding for years.

She kept walking, guided by a feeling she had in her heart and the light around her.

It was a gentle light, but strong.

She knew she had reached wherever she was supposed to go when she found a man bound by old chains.

He had spiky bone white hair and very tan skin. When he opened his eyes they were red the color of blood and pissed off. There was a scar down his right eye that almost reached the bottom of his cheek. He wore strange clothing but his chest was exposed for the most part.

" _Heh... what are you supposed to be, another pathetic temptation of that demon?"_

"I have absolutely no idea where I am or who you even are," she admitted. "I'm Usagi... what's your name?"

The man stared at her for a moment, confused before the words filtered through his head through the current host of the demon. Not that the brat who possessed the Ring was aware of that fact yet.

" _Hmph. Call me Ba-Ku-Ra,"_ he said bluntly.

She could feel her surroundings begin to shift, and the man snorted.

" _So the demon decided to start the torment early. If you want to avoid being caught in my punishment little bunny, you should leave now."_

She stayed, rooted to the spot for reasons even she didn't fully understand. Something told her this was very important and that regardless of what she saw or heard someone _needed_ to know the truth.

It was horrible... she witnessed a village been ransacked by what looked like the pharaoh's guards (she wasn't sure but she was basing it on the hieroglyphs and the fact she definitely saw a lot of sand everywhere)...before the bodies of the dead were all thrown into gold and _melted_ into familiar artifacts.

She wanted to look away, but something kept her from doing so. Then she saw something that made her focus on anything but the horrific origin of the Millennium Puzzle.

It was a child, one who looked like a far younger version of the man before her without the scar. An innocent who had been forced to watch his village burn and be turned into cursed artifacts, unable to do anything. If he had tried, he almost certainly would have joined his family.

The man looked amused she had watched the whole thing... until he realized she was openly crying.

Not just for those lost souls that had been trapped in the puzzle... but also for the innocence that had been lost at the depravity.

"No power could possibly be worth the horror you went through," she said, crying.

" _I will have my revenge on the pharaoh's family. That bastard managed to get himself reincarnated and still walks around like he owns the place."_

Usagi stilled.

"This pharaoh... did he have the puzzle or was he given another artifact?"

" _The puzzle is the sign of the king. Odds are he found his reincarnation and had the brat solve it. My village was destroyed on his father's orders and that bastard walked around with the bodies of my dead family and friends like it was nothing, a mere trinket."_

Usagi couldn't blame him for being so angry. She would be appalled as well if she knew her family and friends had been turned into cursed jewelry and the ones responsible wore them around without knowing what had been used to make them!

"Why are you chained up though?"

" _I made a deal with a demon, since the gods didn't seem to give a damn. After all, the pharaoh was their beloved child. The laugh is on me... the demon decided it wasn't enough to just chain me down, he's also gotten my reincarnation as well. The kid has no idea what he's gotten into. What are you doing?"_

Usagi walked over to him and looked at the chains. They were so very old, and they looked like they could fall apart at any moment. Especially with the light around her showing their faults.

"No one should suffer like you did. And while I agree the pharaoh and his family are at fault, their reborn selves have no blame in the tragedy that befell you. Unless you would like your reincarnation to suffer for your crimes against the pharaoh as well," said Usagi simply, trying to find a way to free him.

The man stared at her.

" _You're not going to tell me to stop hating that bastard?"_

"What you went through as a child would be more than enough for _anyone_ to want revenge, even if the son had no idea how the items were made in the first place. Besides, royal lines in Ancient Egypt died off all the time... just look at what happened to Tutankhamen. One more really isn't going to make that much difference, especially if they were reborn again anyway for a second chance."

It was strange... the more she touched the chains the more they seemed to rust over and become more fragile. She found a week spot and borrowed the man's knife to hit it with.

With a few well placed hits, the chains broke free...and so did their prisoner.

Seeing the stunned expression on his face (he barely registered her returning his knife, as broken as it was), he couldn't really react to the fact she was hugging him.

Usagi woke up to her room, and wondered what that dream was supposed to be about.


	6. Chapter 6

**Just so we're clear, Usagi (Tsubaki) is less "Sailor Moon" and more "Fluttershy with an actual backbone". ;)**

* * *

Ba-Ku-Ra, the King of Thieves, looked at the man with the fiery crown and warm amber eyes.

" _Just so we're clear, I do this and I get a chance to work my way to a better afterlife when she dies?"_ he asked.

" _These Millennium Items worry me and I don't like the fact that shady keeper managed to get into the Throne of the Sky like that. Osiris has agreed that you may work off your_ previous _crimes against the Pharaoh by acting as her guardian in the Shadow Realm. Her power is not meant to be tainted by darkness like yours was, though you may borrow some of it to become temporarily stronger to deal with threats."_

" _Sounds like a fair deal to me,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra. Protecting the little bunny who managed to free him wasn't a bad deal at all.

" _There is one small catch... you won't be able to maintain your_ human _form for very long. A temporary body will be made that will last for as long as she is alive, and you will go to judgment once she passes on to the next life."_

" _What kind of temporary body?"_ he asked warily. Hearing a sound under him, he blinked. _"You have got to be joking."_

" _Would you rather be a rabbit? I can assure we can change it to one,"_ said the man impishly.

Ba-Ku-Ra scooped up the form he would be taking with an annoyed look.

Being stuck as a bone white cat with a red collar and small bell was a price he was more than willing to pay if it meant not being trapped by Zorc again. At least he could take his true form whenever he was in the Shadow Realm or become human temporarily whenever he borrowed the girl's flames.

* * *

 _The next morning..._

"I can't believe that the professor chased you around like that, Jounouchi-kun! And you, Anzu! What were you doing on that board so far out anyway!" scolded Usagi.

After the harrowing night of the other Yugi having to fight that creepy Egyptian, Usagi had a really weird dream involving Egypt and thieves.

So naturally she was very surprised to feel a paw _lightly_ clawing at her socks.

She looked down to find a rather adorable kitten with bone white fur, blood red eyes and a spiked tail. He had a collar around his neck with a little bell and a note tied to it.

"Mew."

"Too cute! I wonder where it's owner is!" said Anzu, glad for the change of subject.

Usagi gently picked it up before liberating the note. Her eyes widened slightly before she smiled.

"It seems his owner couldn't take care of him anymore so they let him loose to find a new one."

"I'd take him, but I doubt my rabbit would like him very much," said Yugi. He really loved Usa-chan, who always went out of her way to great him when he came home. She was really too cute and reminded him of Usagi when she was really happy.

"I can't stand cats," said Jou.

"My dad's allergic," said Anzu. She loved them, but her dad always had sneezing fits whenever he was around them.

"No way man. My dog hates cats," said Honda.

"I doubt Angel will mind him. He's pretty good with other animals and doesn't mind the strays that come by my apartment. Besides, I'm not that big a fan of dogs anyway," said Usagi, stroking the kitten's head. It let out a rumbling purr before nuzzling against her neck.

"What are you going to call him?" asked Yugi.

"I'm thinking Mogget. He reminds me of the cat in the book I was reading earlier," said Usagi.

Once she was safely at home (with the newly named Mogget sleeping in her bag for most of work, save to filch a few bits of her hamburger and meat), she took the kitten and sat him down on the counter before giving him a look.

"Alright, now explain how you suddenly got turned into a cat of all things."

Mogget curled his tail around his body before he smirked. It was a grin that had a lot of fang to it.

" _Seems your little jaunt in the Shadow Realm without protection alarmed your protective ancestor. He managed to broker a deal with the gods to give me a chance to redeem myself and work my way towards a better afterlife as punishment for my previous crimes against the pharaoh. In exchange for keeping you safe whenever you end up in the Shadow Realm and against the Items, I get to wander around more or less freely. Even if I can only take my true form temporarily later."_

"So basically you're on probation for a really long time and part of your punishment is to act as my bodyguard."

" _Pretty much,"_ shrugged the cat.

"I can live with that. And if you're going to steal then please try to avoid my co-workers, my friends and family and at least _attempt_ to keep it from being traced back to me later."

" _I make no promises with the pharaoh's runty double,"_ he said dryly.

"If you leave Yugi alone and only go after that spirit that's been taking over whenever there's trouble, then we'll have no problems. Deal?"

" _Fine, but don't expect me to work together with that pest unless you bribe me really well first,"_ said Bakura annoyed.

"Fair enough."

The cat jumped onto her shoulder and curled around her neck like a scarf while she cooked dinner. He didn't particularly care what he ate...he had survived on moldy bread more than once.

So it was with great surprise that she gave him normal human food like hamburger steak (she had agreed to make Hibari lunch for tomorrow) and it tasted far better than anything he had ever eaten in his life. There wasn't even a scrap left on the plate, to her amusement. Thanks to his small body he had more than filled up his stomach.

This deal was looking better and better all the time!

* * *

Mogget was received with mixed feelings in the office. Oddly enough he seemed to get along with Kyouya rather well, unlike Angel who was always ready for a fight with the demon prefect.

The sight of the dragon with the cat curled up on his chest while he napped on the small couch behind Usagi's desk (no one dared to wake him up) was quickly accepted and promptly ignored. Kyouya didn't seem to mind his job since it meant that the herbivores knew their place and that he was always ready and willing to bite someone to death if they bothered him or Usagi.

Mokuba naturally found the whole thing hilarious, even if he had to help requisition the couch in the first place. Kaiba didn't care because Hibari was only "on the clock" when trouble arose and aside from the couch didn't take up any space or cause any noise. It meant he only had to pay the teen whenever the other one was fighting, a fact Kyouya didn't mind at all.

Though there was some amusement when Mogget stole some of Hibari's lunch which prompted a stare down between the kitten and the prefect.

Kyouya glared at the blood red eyes that didn't hesitate to glare back with just as much viciousness.

"Hmph. Get your own damn lunch, carnivore. Or get the bunny princess to make you some."

The cat continued glaring at him, not wanting to break the stare down.

"What are you two doing?" asked Usagi amused, having already taken a picture and shared it with Mokuba. She could hear him cackling with amusement from his office already.

"Showing which one of us is the superior carnivore," said Hibari without hesitation. He would not yield to this new bodyguard of the bunny princess.

Usagi grinned, before she pulled something out of her desk. It was her lunch and the lunch for Angel and Mogget.

She pulled out Angel's food first, before she unleashed her weapon.

The second Mogget smelled the food he was on the desk in a heartbeat. He had a weakness for steak and chicken, amusingly enough.

Hibari smirked in victory. The cat was purring in Usagi's lap once it finished, bloated from the food.

"Interesting carnivore."

"Usagi, come in here for a moment," said Kaiba.

She carefully put the snoring kitten on Hibari's lap, and the lazy thing barely rolled over.

"Yes sir?"

Kaiba had a box on his desk.

"This is yours. I notice that headband of yours was becoming ragged and I was bored enough to play around with this. There's also something to help you keep track of my schedule without having to consult the tablet all the time."

Inside was a new headband, except the ears could move freely thanks to simple electronic impulses. It was actually a prototype to sell to bored teenage girls. Something to make quick cash off of serious cosplayers and the odd furry fetish. There were even different colored 'fur coverings'. Next to those was a pair of glasses that were connected to a small computer she could clip to her belt. The computer was directly connected to her trusty tablet (which was damn near bomb proof because she was still very clumsy despite her best efforts) and was disguised as a bunny tail so no one would really notice it.

Usagi loved it immediately, even if it was going to take her a bit to get used to the glasses and the new ears.

And that was before she found the little earbuds that could discreetly pull out away from the headband and allow her to listen to music without anyone really noticing. It wouldn't go above a certain volume, but it meant she wouldn't be bored during meetings anymore.

She was a very happy bunny.

After she left the office to figure out her new ears and tail, Mokuba walked in with an amused expression.

"She didn't even notice the date, did she?"

"Not in the least," said Kaiba, amused and slightly annoyed.

Of course Mokuba was present when Usagi finally _did_ realize the date and blushed rather spectacularly. It was hilarious and he had an agreement with her mother for blackmail material for later... he promptly took pictures.

And the only reason she 'cottoned on' to the date was because she found a box on her desk from Hibari with a big white ribbon that would go well with her ears.

It took her a second to register the date before it hit her.

Mokuba snickered.

"You do realize that the ears and tail thing could constitute as a White Day gift right?"

Usagi was too shocked to answer him. He grinned.

"Want me to make sure you can corner him later to thank him when the security cameras have a mystery glitch?"

She nodded, still blushing.

Kaiba was in a much better mood when she figured it out, as was Hibari.

Mokuba was running the not-so-minor betting rings on which one Usagi would end up with... her guard dog, her boss or both.

Unknown to most of the employees, Mokuba had placed bets for himself, Fon and Nana on it being both. It was a great source of entertainment for them all, even if Fon would have to collect the winnings between the three of them before splitting it evenly.

Of course Mokuba did record Usagi kissing _both_ dragons on the cheek for the gift, still blushing like mad. It was hilarious to see the look on his brother's face now that he was hopefully on the way to getting a girlfriend.

Seriously, his brother needed to get laid. Something he would say loudly around others just to see his brother riled up.

* * *

Nana looked at the date and sighed. Once again a romantic holiday had passed without a single call from her so-called husband. At least Tsubaki would be home for the weekend.

With her child mostly out of the house, Nana found herself with more free time than she knew what to do with. So she decided to try getting a job, preferably with the same man who gave her daughter the confidence to start a fresh life in another city and take chances.

Tsuyoshi was a widower and his son had never been part of the bullies who hurt her daughter. He was a decent cook (he was better with sushi), a kind and fair man, and he had given her daughter a chance when no one else would because of her unfortunate reputation.

More than once Nana wished she had been single, if only so she could properly enjoy the light flirting that always happened between them.

She didn't even bat an eye when she saw the new pet Tsubaki brought home with her. Mogget was very well behaved and was quite tidy. There was a sort of feral feel about him, but he never harmed her daughter and would suffer the indignity of having a bow wrapped around his neck as a joke without trying to scratch her for it.

Nana honestly had no idea why she vented her frustration with her husband to the cat. Perhaps it was loneliness, perhaps she just wanted someone to listen.

Either way she had no idea the chain reaction it would set off as a result. One that would make everyone much happier with the new arrangement except for Iemitsu.


	7. Chapter 7

Bakura was on a mission. One approved by the 'parole board' as Usagi had jokingly called it. He was in Italy spying on Usagi's father and Nana's husband.

Iemitsu Sawada was a real piece of work. The man claimed he cared about his family, but here he was in Italy living it up and training a kid who could have passed for Usagi's brother with how close their appearance was.

In fact... Bakura stole a bit of hair off the kid's brush and some from Iemitsu so Hibari could do a DNA comparison test. The more they had to use against this idiot, the easier it would be for Nana to annul their farce of a marriage.

Usagi barely even remembered what the idiot looked like, Nana was sick of pretending everything was fine when Iemitsu didn't even bother to remember the important things like birthdays (he was always late for Usagi's birthday), and to be honest the guy was a total loser.

So what if he was a mafioso? That wasn't an excuse for being a total deadbeat father.

The more evidence Bakura collected, the more ironclad Nana's case against her husband became. At this rate Nana would have all the thing she needed for a divorce and full custody of her daughter.

Bakura smirked.

But why stop there?

The man was an idiot, was more of a field commander than a desk jockey, and didn't really _read_ the papers he signed.

Bakura had checked. He had the man sign an overly large check before cashing it the next morning.

The cat smirked. This was going to be _fun_ , and he had been given full permission to do whatever was needed to insure that Nana was able to get the divorce since Iemitsu failed as a husband and as a father.

Usagi would be much better off if her mother remarried that sushi chef/hit man she was so partial to. The only thing stopping them was the fact she was still legally married to an idiot who was never around.

Well... at least he got to test his new form out for some proper thievery once he had Iemitsu sign the paperwork.

* * *

 _One week later..._

Nana was _livid_.

Not only was her husband not doing construction work, but he had a _son_ with another woman while they were still newlyweds. He was having a grand time living in Italy while she was left alone in a home with a child and next to no support!

As if that wasn't insulting enough, that _fool_ didn't even have the balls to tell her the real reason why he was never around! Finding out he was a mafioso was a shock, but she could have lived with it. Being lied to was inexcusable, never mind the damage he did to his daughter by never being here.

She didn't even question the fact her daughter's cat could apparently turn into a rather handsome man with white hair and red eyes.

That was unimportant compared to the fact that now she had all the reason she would ever need to file for divorce.

Enough was enough.

Within a week she had the paperwork (Kaiba had helped discreetly pay for the lawyer by giving Usagi a bonus...which she used to pay for the legal fees) and her new attorney assured her that there was little chance Iemitsu could contest it after the thirty day limit was over.

He had a month to reconcile with his wife before she took him for everything he had. And with the chaos Bakura had planned, there was little chance he would figure out what happened until _long_ after the grace period was over.

He had seen some very shiny trinkets behind some major protection, which meant valuable/important/worth stealing to him. And it would almost certainly distract Iemitsu long enough for Nana to move on with her life.

He was having way too much fun with this. The idiot didn't even bother to read the papers or the fact he just signed over full custody of his daughter to his wife, along with the majority of his money. He was so assured of the fact his wife would never leave him that he never even _thought_ of signing a prenup.

It took Bakura almost every ounce of self restraint not to whistle as he left the building to deliver the papers to Nana.

He'd be back in the wee hours of the morning, when people were just coming in, to steal the trinkets he saw earlier. One of them looked like they would suit Usagi very well. It was a bright orange color that reminded him of her eyes when she was properly serious about something.

Nana took the papers and sent them off to her lawyer. Iemitsu now had a month to reconcile before it was quietly made official and Nana was a single woman again.

The next morning Bakura slipped in as Mogget, before he found the shiny trinkets that got his attention. With a grin he swiped them from their hiding place before he made sure to trigger _every single alarm_ using a blast of shadow magic, sending chaos and panic in people just coming off the weekend. More than a few were still hung over and therefor useless in helping immediately.

He didn't stop there... he could sense there was another set of these particular rings, and he was never one to resist temptation like that.

By the time lunch rolled around Bakura had both sets and left enough chaos that the divorce notice would go unnoticed. He had seen Iemitsu openly ignore a letter from Japan merely because he hadn't recognized the name right off the bat earlier... mostly because he had sent it.

It disappeared along with the rings.

"What have you been up to, silly kitty?" said Usagi scooping up the cat.

Bakura presented her with his 'prize'.

Usagi blinked, before she looked at the odd rings.

"Are these for me?" she asked.

Bakura meowed, before rubbing against her cheek. Playing the part of a cat was great... he didn't have to work for his meals, she turned a blind eye to his thieving habits, and he had a soft bed to sleep on. He put up with the little indignities for something like that.

Of course he considered the rings a good way to show his appreciation and bribe her to continue the pampering treatment. He might be an adult man trapped in a cat's body, but he was also raised a street kid during times when child care was nonexistent except for nobility and even then it wasn't much.

Being pampered like a prince when he had been raised a pauper was something he wasn't particularly eager to give up, and he'd defend his 'owner' to the death to keep it going.

He wasn't an idiot after all.

Usagi clicked together the orange one, before putting it on a simple chain necklace and slipping it under her shirt. It was pretty, but a bit too noticeable.

There was an odd warmth in her chest and it almost felt like she was connecting to the ring before it passed.

"I'm thinking you deserve a reward for helping Mama dealing with that idiot. How about some proper steak and possibly some pork or goat meat?" she said.

Bakura purred even louder.

He was never complaining about his new lot in life, because it was loads better than what he had to deal with before. Though he'd still take pot shots at the Pharaoh if given a chance, and even Usagi could agree that the Items need to be put to rest permanently, if only to free the souls trapped inside.

Outside of that, his new life was a major improvement.

Besides... Usagi knew just how to brush his fur to get rid of the knots and he could tolerate the baths since it meant he never itched like crazy. At least she wouldn't bother with getting him fixed...if he wanted female company he could take his real form for a few hours and get it out that way.

Not that he bothered overly much with that sort of thing.

* * *

 _Five weeks later..._

Nana seriously wanted to laminate the papers she got in the mail.

She was _finally_ a free woman, and she had been assured Iemitsu was far too busy with something he considered more important than their marriage to deal with the divorce notice.

By the time he _did_ notice, it would be far too late. Not only had she gotten the house, her daughter and most of his money, she also got alimony since it was just a slap in the face to a man who hadn't been faithful to her like he claimed.

So to celebrate, Nana took her daughter and the strange cat-turned-man out to eat at TakeSushi.

Tsuyoshi and Nana shared a few looks that had Usagi smiling.

She knew he was a good man and Takeshi was relatively nice to her back when she was still in that school. Even if it was mostly staying out of the bullying.

She wasn't surprised in the least to hear her mother was now dating the sushi chef.

* * *

"You seem in a good mood. Something happen?" asked Yugi.

"My mother finally got a divorce. She's dating this nice sushi chef back in Namimori...they've been dancing around each other for years."

"You're happy your mom got a divorce?" said Jou.

"My 'father' and I hesitate to use that word to describe the lout, was a complete idiot who was never around. He only visited for a week at a time and was always late with the important dates like birthdays, anniversaries or simple romantic holidays. I haven't seen him in years, come to think of it."

There was a group wince hearing that.

"However Tsuyoshi-san is a good man who never remarried after his wife died and his son was one of the few who didn't actively join in on the teasing when I was still living there. He's also the one who gave me my first job washing dishes at his restaurant despite the rumors about how clumsy I am," said Usagi cheerfully.

Usagi had waited until her mother went to use the restroom before she told the chef that he had long had her full approval to date and possibly marry her mother. It would be good for both of them and Nana was still young enough to have more kids.

Something Iemitsu clearly never planned to give her. He had his heir and he was happy with the one he had (and the bastard Bakura had discovered by accident, who was named _Basil_ of all things) while Nana had always wanted a big family full of kids.

"So when's the wedding?" asked Honda.

"They're going to date for a few months and wait for the shock of the fact she's single again to wear off before they start making anything official. After all, she's been married since before I was born. It hasn't fully sunk in yet. And if it does work out then I get a new big brother out of the deal."

"Really?" said Yugi.

"Tsuyoshi has a son who's about the same age I am name Takeshi. He really loves baseball."

Perhaps it was fate, or maybe it was just luck... but by next week another new transfer from Namimori came to their school.

Usagi recognized him immediately.

It was Takeshi!

"Everyone, give a warm welcome to..."

"Ahaha... the name's Yamamoto Takeshi!"

As one, Yugi and the others stared at him, before looking at Usagi who definitely knew who the other boy was. As if to confirm their suspicions, Takeshi finally noticed the ears and grinned even wider.

"Hey Usagi! Guess we're going to be classmates again!" he said cheerfully.

Takeshi had been more or less warned by Nana that Tsubaki had changed her name to "Sorano Usagi" to get away from that horrible nickname that had followed her for years. He had taken that to heart and chose to let her continue using the name Usagi.

It was really easy to remember...once he saw the now-familiar ears and tail.

Usagi's surprise lasted for a few more minutes, before she smiled so brightly it caught Takeshi off guard.

He had _never_ seen Tsubaki smile like that back home or in class. She was always trying to hide her tears or putting on a brave half-smile that was as fake as his own "everything's fine" smile.

But now... major transformation.

Too bad he was banned from playing baseball for a full month because Nana noticed he was wincing every time he lifted his right arm and his dad forcibly dragged him to the doctor's office to find out why.

On the plus side, he was almost immediately included in Usagi's group of friends and soon found himself debating baseball statistics with an enthusiastic Honda and Jounouchi.

"What's with the rabbit and the cat?" he had to ask.

"The rabbit has a weird rivalry with Hibari and the cat is lazy as hell but very vicious if he doesn't like you," said Jounouchi seriously.

They found that out the hard way when Mogget suddenly went after Yugi for no apparent reason only to ignore him immediately when the kid squawked and went submissive.

Yugi had been appropriately freaked out by the whole thing. But Mogget definitely had a real hatred for his puzzle and no one knew why.

Well, that wasn't entirely true.

Usagi had given Yugi fair warning that her cat absolutely _loathed_ the spirit that took control whenever he was in trouble to the point he would attack him on sight if the spirit was out. And he had a perfectly reasonable hatred of the Millennium Items to the point that if there was a chance to lay them and the powers they contained to rest, he would do so without hesitation, regardless of the damage it could cause.

All Yugi knew was that while _he_ was safe from the lazy cat who followed Usagi everywhere, the spirit of the pharaoh trapped in the puzzle had an 'attack on sight' order around that cat.

And no, there was really nothing she could do other than to keep it to easily healed scratches at this point. Her cat really didn't like the other him at all.


	8. Chapter 8

Usagi stared at Yugi, before she sighed.

"How do you keep getting into these situations? How?"

"I keep asking myself that same question, Usagi-nee," sighed Yugi tiredly.

At least Mogget wasn't with her...when she had arrived the spirit had been in control and that cat was mean as hell with those claws.

Usagi knew Yugi kept getting into trouble (her newly honed big sister sense always told her... that or she kept feeling the 'ripple' of that dark energy that was present in the pharaoh's spirit) but she was often too busy to be much help.

About the only thing she had been able to do was keep her boss' ego in check so he didn't take it too personally when the older spirit beat him at a silly card game.

She might not be very brave, but she put her foot down on him using two billion yen _just_ for some over the top rematch against a dead guy.

Mokuba had laughed himself sick for an hour when he saw her tell him "No, you aren't allowed to build some overly complicated amusement park just to satisfy your ego".

If he even _tried_ to go against her she would quit scheduling his day so he had at least _something_ close to free time and acting as interference with the board of directors.

That was actually pretty easy to pull off... she just scheduled it so that two or more meetings conflicted with each other and had the more competent people in that department send her direct reports that she could then hand the boss, thus negating the need for them to bother showing up except for board meetings.

By the time they managed to agree who would go first to see the boss, there was usually less than fifteen minutes left and they got almost nothing accomplished except to give her all the excuse she needed to work on her homework with her music on.

Needless to say those old idiots were quite baffled how Kaiba always knew more about their department than they did, despite the fact they rarely had a chance to turn in anything to make themselves look better and hopefully wring more money out of him for their own projects.

Yugi tried to tactfully change the subject.

"So how's your mom doing?"

"It finally sank in that she's a single woman again. She's been going out a lot more and I know she's been dating Tsuyoshi more often... I expect they'll announce a date soon enough... either way she's going to make sure to enjoy being freed from the idiot as long as she can. The best part is that the divorce was more or less made ironclad so even if he did show up there's nothing he could do about it... she can legally have him arrested for trespassing if he shows up at the house again."

"Was he really that bad?"

Usagi sighed.

"Yugi, when I told him about the rampant bullying I was facing in school you know what he said to me?"

Yugi said nothing, and Usagi's voice took on a different tone that made his skin crawl for some reason.

"'Son, sometimes a real man has to take the hits as they come. If you want to be a man then you should stand up for yourself and make them stop,'" said Usagi in disgust.

"...Your dad does know you're a _girl_ right?"

"He desperately wanted a boy. You have no idea how close I came to being named 'Tsunayoshi' of all things when I was born. It was lucky one of the nurses accidentally locked him out of the room because he had to use the restroom when I came out, because it was my mother's idea to name me Tsubaki instead," said Usagi with a shudder.

Yugi winced at the implications.

He could absolutely see why she was so relieved to be free of her father's influence.

"So where are you heading next week?"

"Italy. The boss has a big meeting with the Vongola Corporation about some chips they've been developing that he's interested in. And then we're meeting with the Cavallone family over some discrepancies, and after that it's the Bovino family for some of their technology," said Usagi, her glasses flashing and hiding her eyes as she went straight into secretary mode. "With any luck we might be able to tempt a scientist named Verde into working for us on a few special projects."

Which only made her look more like a professional with her glasses. Not only did they record entire conversation, but they made it a lot easier to keep track of the schedules and know where her boss was at all times.

Along with Hibari, Angel, Mokuba and of course Mogget.

She had come a long way from the clumsy girl who got a job entirely by accident because she grabbed the wrong headband.

"Do you even speak Italian?"

"Actually I do. I was trying to impress the idiot because I knew he was in Italy, but I never got a chance to use it properly. Besides, my ears have an auto-translate feature to make it easier for me to 'read' what people are saying."

"That's so cool!" said Yugi.

"And it means I can watch anything I want and not have to deal with subtitles," she said amused. "Though the weird thing is that I've been learning Chinese and English a lot faster with these on for some reason."

Chinese from the video chats with an amused Fon (who mostly wanted to check up on Kyouya) and English because several people that visited Kaiba Land (he got his amusement park, but no rematch against the spirit) were American tourists.

* * *

 _In Italy..._

Usagi took her position to behind and to the right of Kaiba, while Mokuba walked right beside him. Kyouya walked to the left with a bored gaze. He was their lone bodyguard until they got home, since Kaiba didn't really trust the other available options.

However right off the bat when they met with the Vongola's delegates Usagi knew this was going to be a complete and utter headache.

She knew Iemitsu was mafia, but who the hell thought sending him to something this delicate was a smart move? The man was an idiot.

Mokuba took one look at the grinning blond, before he almost looked at Usagi.

The only reason he didn't was because he could feel her feminine fury from behind them, her ears twitching with suppressed rage.

She desperately wanted to claw the man's eyes out for all the crap she had to deal with growing up.

However Usagi was a professional...besides, she could always sent Bakura after the man's wallet before they left and go on a minor shopping spree in revenge.

Kaiba was absolutely disgusted with the Vongola representative. The man was clearly incompetent and kept looking at Usagi for some reason. He also hadn't picked up that she was three seconds away from gouging his eyes out for his idiocy.

They managed to secure some of the chips, but not enough to make Kaiba happy at all.

* * *

 _With Iemitsu..._

"You're not going to believe what walked into the meeting I had with that Japanese company," said Iemitsu to Timoteo.

" _Oh? Do tell."_

"An active Sky with a strong Cloud guardian, possibly two and a latent Sun kid."

" _Are you sure?"_

"That Kaiba guy is clearly a Latent Cloud, and his bodyguard is an Active one. The little brother is a Sun and their Assistant is the Sky," said Iemitsu with confidence.

A civilian Sky was a big deal... it was a miracle she hadn't been noticed yet.

" _Who are they meeting with next?"_

"From what I understand they're going to meet with the Cavallone familigia over some discrepancies with their last don."

" _Keep an eye on them. I want to be absolutely sure that the girl is a Sky before we approach them."_

* * *

 _With Usagi and the others..._

"The nerve of that man! He didn't even recognize me!" fumed Usagi.

"I can't blame Mama for getting a divorce. That guy was a total tool," said Mokuba in disgust.

Nana had worn Mokuba down to the point he would call her "Mama" openly. She was the closest thing to a mother the brothers had ever had.

"I don't like how that pathetic carnivore was looking at Usagi-hime," growled Hibari. "He was far too interested in her and not on the meeting itself."

"You noticed it too?" said Kaiba in annoyance.

"I bet it has something to do with why Fon seemed so relieved that Kyouya agreed to act as a bodyguard," said Usagi. "Speaking of Fon... would you be overly offended if I requested that he act as a secondary bodyguard?"

"Why?" asked Kaiba.

"Something tells me we're going to need the extra back up. I trust Kyouya to deal with any idiots attempting to accost us...but I have a weird feeling in my gut that we're going to need his help before leaving Italy."

Kaiba might have disputed that... except he had seen Usagi's gut instinct save them from some rather bad situations before. More than once, in fact.

Like when he was attending a conference in Paris. She had dumped several important (but not time critical) paperwork on him to finish before he went back to the conference room floor...and he avoided being dragged into a rather messy hostage situation with some rather dangerous terrorists. Or another time when he was supposed to meet a representative from Russia, only for her to send someone else in his place after giving him more free time to work on something that was far less annoying.

The representative turned out to be a female Russian spy sent to either seduce him or drug him so that they might steal several valuable prototypes. Instead all they got was an incompetent director who didn't have access to anything even remotely important and who Kaiba was able to immediately fire upon learning that he had lost several almost important documents due to incompetence.

The man had promptly been replaced by someone who actually knew what they were doing and wasn't a total sycophant.

He had also been picked by Usagi, who apparently had an eye for that sort of thing and followed her instincts.

He never doubted her intuition again.

"Call him," said Kaiba without hesitation.

Usagi was on the phone immediately and spoke in Chinese. She had become rather fluent thanks to her frequent video chats with Fon, who found her rather delightful.

" _Hello Fon-san? This is Usagi. I'm fine thanks. We're in Italy at the moment and we were wondering if you'd be interested in some temporary bodyguard work until we return to Japan. Yes, Kyouya is with us..."_

Usagi chatted animatedly with Fon, before explaining the problem. The second she mentioned Iemitsu's rather odd interest in her, despite the fact he _definitely_ didn't recognize his own child Fon agreed to come as soon as he could.

While he wouldn't be there in time for their meeting with the Cavallone familigia, he would be there the day after tomorrow.

The fact it meant he would be able to miss Reborn, who was almost finished training the current don was a bonus. The less people knew of Usagi, the better.

Usagi had to wonder why he suggested 'feeding' her excess energy into Mogget.

Actually it was less of a suggestion and more of a recommendation if she wanted to escape any further attention from the Vongola.

Well, far be it not to follow something like that, especially since her instincts are demanding she do the same thing the second Fon suggested it.

It was only because she was letting Mogget absorb her excess "flames" as Fon had called them that she avoided detection by the Sun Arcobaleno Reborn while they worked out how the Cavallone could deal with the minor issues that had been spotted. Dino was clumsy, but the fact Usagi relaxed around him made negotiations that much easier.

If she trusted him, then he wasn't going to be a major problem like Iemitsu had been.

Fon took one look at the rings Mogget the 'cat' liberated just to cause enough chaos that the divorce went unnoticed before he did something very odd for him. It was so surprising that Kyouya put aside his usual disdain of his uncle long enough to stare at him in disbelief.

Fon was _cackling_.

"Okay, what's the big deal about the rings?" asked Usagi tiredly.

"Long story short they are used for the succession of the Vongola familigia... the same family that Iemitsu belongs to. Have you tried putting it on like a proper ring yet?"

Usagi shook her head. Though from the look on Fon's face she should at least attempt it.

The ring suddenly shrunk to fit her finger and the stone began to blaze with an orange fire. Fon looked rather pleased with this.

"What's so special about the ring?"

"It means you're the rightful heir to the Vongola. It also means that none of the other familigias can force you or Kyouya to join them since you already _belong_ to one. Until they figure out where the rings are, or they send someone to try and make you the new heir, it will provide you and your Elements protection from the Vindice, especially if you start using Flames. There are a few rules, but they are not going to get involved in an internal dispute between two factions of the Vongola. Especially if you can fill the rest of your Guardian spots. Do you have the others?"

Usagi reached into her bag and pulled out another one. She had always felt it belong to Kyouya for some reason, but was too embarrassed to give it to him.

At his prompting she snapped the pieces together, before handing it to the intrigued Kyouya. It also shrank to fit his finger, though like Usagi he promptly wore it under his shirt away from casual view.

Showing them off while they were in Italy was a very, very bad idea. Not if they wanted to stay "civilians" at any rate.

In an effort to annoy Kyouya and amuse Usagi, Fon disguised himself as "Kyouya's little brother" who was brought along due to lack of options when it came to babysitters. So long as the pacifier was hidden and Fon remained quiet, no one was going to figure out the Asian martial artist was anything but a cute toddler his long-suffering older brother had to drag along with him.

Of course Fon takes full advantage of the situation to get a ride from Usagi who promptly carried him in her arms like a little doll... but not before putting cat ears on him.

If she's going to act as transport, then she wants some fun out of it!


	9. Chapter 9

The meeting with the Bovino was equal parts frustrating and productive. On an unrelated note, Usagi apparently attracted a stalker of sorts in the form of an absolutely adorable four year old who wore cow horns.

Considering her own love of rabbit ears, she cooed at the little one before scooping him up in a firm hug. His hair was just so fluffy and the cow onesie was adorable!

Lambo immediately attached to the "nice big sister" and was shockingly calm throughout the rest of the meeting, despite having startled the guests.

(She would later be baffled as to how she ended up the legal guardian of the little cow, but she didn't complain since her mother was more than happy to watch him for her. She was still getting a placeholder for her Lightning until Lambo grew up more... she was not comfortable with making a child fight her battles, even if Lambo _could_ get hit by lightning and survive with great ease outside of a few scuff marks. Considering the alternative was to allow Lambo to continue the ridiculous mission of attacking the World's Greatest Hit Man, she'd rather deal with having an unexpected little brother.)

However it was what happened _after_ the meeting when they were due to return to Domino that had Usagi's hackles raised.

Even Mogget was tense, and he had been laid back the entire trip.

Standing in the cafe where she was getting coffee to go (Kaiba needed caffeine and was in the mood for proper Italian coffee) was a familiar old man. She was glad she had the ring hidden under her shirt and that nothing in her body language said she knew him as anything other than an old man.

Usagi was automatically suspicious of his intentions when he paid for her order. She plastered on a fake smile, but her glasses hid the fact her eyes narrowed at the action.

"Thank you sir," she said in English.

"Not a problem, young lady. I have to admit your choice in accessories is certainly interesting," he replied in almost perfect Japanese.

"They're my lucky charm," she said with a straight face. "It was because of my ears that I got hired, even if I grabbed them by accident."

"May I ask what a nice Japanese girl like you is doing in Italy?"

Her expression went completely flat.

"Really? As if the incompetence of Iemitsu Sawada wasn't enough you're going to try _that_ to make small talk? We both know I'm here as Kaiba-san's personal assistant, Timoteo-san," she said bluntly. "And before you try to convince me I need the Vongola's help from the underworld, I would like to point out that you and Iemitsu threw me out first."

Timoteo froze. His friendly grandfather persona was quickly dropping to make way for that of the Vongola Don.

"Who are you?"

"My _name_ was Sawada Tsubaki, and I will never allow you or that fool to control my life again. I've suffered enough because Iemitsu couldn't be bothered to be a father to his daughter and spends most of his time with his bastard son Basil. Have a nice day, Timoteo-san," she said curtly, eyes blazing with fury.

She took her order and walked out with her head held high uncaring of the chaos she left in her wake.

They were gone from Italy before Timoteo had a chance to return to the Vongola estate and start making a lot of very uncomfortable phone calls.

Including one to find out if she was telling the truth about Iemitsu siring a bastard son.

The Vongola were finding out the hard way that the ant hill that was being kicked over was in fact filled with fire ants and they were _pissed_.

* * *

After the headache of Italy, Usagi gleefully dove into a chance to bond with the one transfer student that hadn't come from Namimori. In fact this one was English.

The second she saw Ryou Bakura, she knew exactly who he was.

It was also a very good thing that Mogget was snoring in her apartment at the moment, rather that in her bag. Angel, as always, was sleeping in her bag after devouring a strawberry sucker bigger than his head.

"So you want to cheer up Ryou since he seemed really down while he talked about his favorite game?" said Usagi.

Yugi gave her an odd look at the lack of honorific... until he remembered she just got back from Italy yesterday and they didn't use them there.

Obviously her mind set was still in Italy for a few more days.

"I thought you might want to join in. You look like you could use a break from the craziness," said Yugi.

Usagi stopped cold, and looked at him oddly.

"Yugi... I have the distinct feeling this will be far more trouble than you were possibly expecting and will bring a new headache. Just know I _will_ be bringing Mogget with me and he will likely be very, very pissed off about something. Hopefully to the point he won't try to claw the Pharaoh's face off the second he inevitably shows up," said Usagi deadpan. She blamed jet lag to be honest.

Yugi winced.

"Is it really going to be that bad?"

"Yugi, you have _no_ idea. Fortunately I think Mogget will focus more on Ryou than he will on the spirit of your puzzle, at least temporarily."

Yugi's head hung in despair. So much for a quiet night of playing a tabletop RPG to cheer up a friend. At least he had forewarning of chaos this time around.

* * *

 _The next night..._

Everyone (including the fake Bakura) stared at Usagi with some disbelief.

"Did you just say that your _cat_ was going to be playing?" repeated Jounouchi.

"Yup. He'll need someone to roll the dice and I already brought his character sheet and figure," she said with a straight face.

Mogget sat on the table rather smugly, glaring at the fake who had taken control of his reincarnation's body.

He may hate the pharaoh, but right now he had a score to settle with the demon that took over Ryou's body.

Bakura took the sheet, frowned for a moment but said nothing.

" _I suppose I can allow it for now. But if he causes a mess or tries to attack the dice he's going to be considered automatically 'dead',"_ he said frowning.

"Fair enough."

His frown deepened when he saw the figurine. It looked familiar, but he couldn't place why at the moment. It looked more like a darker skinned, more vicious version of Ryou.

"So how come you ain't playing Usagi?" asked Jounouchi.

"I'm still suffering jet lag, thank you very much. Red eye flights from Europe are a nightmare, especially when your boss is extra pissy about having to deal with avoiding one of the representatives that annoyed him greatly."

"Ouch," said Anzu with sympathy.

"It could have been worse. That idiot ex-father of mine could have actually recognized me when we ran into him during our first meeting with the representatives," said Usagi dryly.

As one all of them (save for Bakura) winced.

All talk was sidelined as they made their characters. The second something happened and Bakura revealed himself to be using shadow magic, Mogget yowled. Or perhaps it was yawn in a very human manner.

" _Really? Is that the best you can do? Sealing her soul in a figurine...how amateur hour."_

"...Usagi, did your cat just talk?"

"He's not actually a cat, and there's a reason why I named him Mogget. Even if he isn't actually the same sort of spirit that the character I named him after was," said Usagi dryly. She was openly enjoying the looks on their faces.

"...I'm not going to ask," said Honda tiredly.

"...Is he the same as the spirit?" asked Yugi slowly.

"He's a grave robber from the same time period with a legitimate grudge against the one you deal with. You do the math," said Usagi.

"Well that at least explains why Mogget hates him so much," said Yugi relieved.

" _If he can speak then he can roll the dice himself!"_ said Bakura crossly.

There was a disturbing grin on the face of Mogget.

" _Are you sure you want me to play for real, instead of relying on the princess to throw the dice?"_

" _Throw the dice you wretched cat!"_

Mogget's grin widened. He didn't even need his human form for this...playing against the demon known as Zorc without revealing his identity was a guaranteed way to anger the monster.

He used a little Sky flame from Usagi to lift the dice and toss them on the board.

"Super Critical! How did he do that?" said Honda in shock.

Mogget chortled. It wasn't a nice sound.

" _My soul is linked to my Mistress. With her permission I can use her power to lift the dice and act as her shield from the shadows."_

" _Then if you fall, she falls with you,"_ said Bakura crossly.

Mogget scoffed unconcerned. His control over the shadows was much stronger than this fake and he had to contend with an unwilling host.

The game continued, though by the end of it only Mogget and the spirit were left in the running. Usagi was napping against the table and would only wake if something happened to alter her connection to the cat. Her ears only occasionally twitched every so often.

* * *

It wasn't until after the mess was resolved (and everyone recovered from the ordeal) that Yugi became brave enough to ask Usagi what she knew about Mogget...and the spirit of the puzzle. It probably had something to do with the fact Ryou was with him, curious about meeting the odd bunny girl in his class with the strange cat.

"Um... Usagi-nee?" asked Yugi slowly, as if unsure how to broach the topic. Fortunately there was a distraction in the form of fresh baked goods that she brought with her. They were alone save for Yugi's grandfather (who was downstairs) and Usa-chan, who was in Yugi's lap.

"You want to know what details I have on the puzzle and the ring."

The two nodded.

"Alright. I don't know much, but I do know something about what they are and how they were made. Mogget could probably tell you more but like I said, he hates the spirit inside the puzzle and he's none too pleased with the copy in your ring Ryou," said Usagi.

"Copy?" he repeated.

She pushed up her glasses.

"About five thousand years ago, one of the pharaohs got his hands on a spell book that detailed how to make seven items of great and terrible power. However the price of making these items was almost as terrifying as the power they allowed their owners to wield. An entire village of over a hundred people were massacred in a single night by the pharaohs guards and then put into gold to be melted into the items. There was only _one_ survivor who saw the entire thing."

Ryou and Yugi both paled at this information. They were carrying dead _bodies_ around their necks?!

"The pharaoh died and the puzzle passed to his son, who took his place as the new king. That king is the spirit inside your puzzle, Yugi. For a few years everything was fine...except the child who survived made a deal with a demon and became the King of Thieves on top of being a notorious grave robber. He naturally was very angry at the pharaoh and his priests for still holding the items and began to attack them in an effort to reclaim the items so that his village might be put to rest after their deaths."

Ryou touched the ring with some sympathy.

"The spirit in my ring is the grave robber, isn't it?"

"Yes and no. I think the majority of the darkness he carried in his soul was sealed inside, but his true self was chained in the shadow realm by the demon he made a deal with. While part of his soul is contained in the ring, the one that you really have to be leery of is the demon that tagged along with it."

Ryou paled even further. He almost looked like a ghost.

"Demon?"

"You should know who it is. After all, you've been unconsciously acknowledging it as a threat in your games," said Usagi.

"Zorc is real?" said Ryou openly horrified. He had been almost impossible to kill in Monster World! He didn't think he could go up against something like that in real life!

"Right now both of their powers are sealed. I think the pharaoh's memories were scrambled when the puzzle was broken apart, since you haven't made proper contact with him yet. As for you Ryou, right now the darker half of the thief is in control. Zorc isn't strong enough to do more than nudge the thief. However as the saying goes, the greater the light, the deeper the darkness," said Usagi.

"What about Mogget?"

"Mogget is the part of the thief that was chained up, as punishment for making a deal with the demon. He's currently working off his crimes by staying with me and acting as my guard around shadow magic. He's agreed to leave you alone, Yugi, but he cannot stand the pharaoh. And he's rather irate that his dark side is still chained to the ring Ryou. But he will not actively target you either... after all, the two of you are the reincarnations of the pharaoh and the thief. He will not punish those who are merely the vessels when you have done nothing to deserve his rage."

Yugi opened his mouth to dispute that... before he thought that one over.

"That actually explains so much, like why my hair is so weird," he mused.

Ryou nodded in agreement. While some of the information she was sharing was horrifying and scared him, it provided some measure of comfort. At least he had some idea of _why_ this was happening, and he had someone to talk to about it.

"For now the thief is going to be licking his wounds after the pharaoh gave him a firm reminder he's still around. But you have to keep in mind that the stronger your powers become, the stronger Zorc is going to get as well. Fortunately there is _something_ I can do to help in that regard. Though it'll bring it's own headaches until people get it through their thick skulls that you and the other are under _my_ protection," said Usagi.

"Usagi-nee... thanks for being honest with us," said Yugi. While he was sure to have nightmares about this for a week, at least she had given them a straight answer.

"Well you are like my little brother and it's rather unfair for you two to be thrown into this mess blindly without _some_ explanation of what's really going on," said Usagi smiling, ruffling Yugi's hair. "Now that you know the truth, I think we should eat these. They don't taste nearly as good cold."

Yugi nodded emphatically.


	10. Chapter 10

Usagi didn't even need her intuition when she saw his face on the security cameras in Mokuba's office while she was dropping off some hot chocolate with extra marshmallows.

She took one look at him, before her face became an expression of calm.

"Kyouya, if you get rid of the visitor that's about to show up in 45 seconds I will cook you lunch for a full week," she said sweetly.

Something in her tone makes his spine go ramrod straight.

"Do I want to know?" he asked.

"You'll understand when you see him. And Kyouya? Don't be gentle. I want it to hurt when you throw his broken and bleeding body to security...or better yet, maintenance, to toss out of the building."

Usagi-hime was beyond pissed at whoever was coming. She promptly disappeared into Mokuba's office to watch the beat down. In a rare show of camaraderie, rather than join her Angel opted to sit on Kyouya's head in anticipation of helping.

The moment he saw Iemitsu Sawada try to stealthily find Usagi, Kyouya didn't need to ask stupid questions.

His Sky (Fon had explained what a Sky was and how Harmony worked when Usagi gave him the ring) had given him a target, one she wanted _gone_.

And as one of her dragons, Kyouya was more than happy to fulfill the request.

Besides, she was bribing him with her cooking. He was not turning that down.

Kyouya's grin was positively bloodthirsty.

"For upsetting Usagi-hime and attempting to cause a disturbance in the white dragon's territory I will bite you to death," said Kyouya with anticipation.

The white dragon being an amused Seto Kaiba.

Whatever Iemitsu was trying to accomplish by coming to Japan, and to Usagi's workplace, he wasn't expecting the combined attacks of the demon prefect and the devil rabbit.

Kaiba was alerted by the racket of Kyouya beating the living hell out of Iemitsu, and promptly called security.

Usagi watched the whole thing with a second mug of hot cocoa.

"I wonder if he knows Mama already remarried to someone who's far more reliable?"

"Who cares? He got what he had coming," said Mokuba dismissively.

Tsuyoshi and Nana were off on their honeymoon, while Takeshi was crashing in Usagi's spare bedroom until they came back. There was some talk of relocating TakeSushi to Domino, to make a fresh start.

At this point Usagi is just happy her mother was finally moving on with someone she can respect and not pining over what might have been with that jackass.

"Do I want to know why your sperm donor tried to infiltrate _my_ building?" grumbled Kaiba.

"He's an idiot and probably found out about the divorce. That or he's trying to figure out how I know about the mafia and whether or not his ex-wife knows. Quite frankly I don't know or particularly care, so long as we can train the facial recognition software near the entrance to recognize him on sight so he can't sneak in a second time," said Usagi flatly, sipping her cocoa. "It's not like he'll find Mama or Tsuyoshi-san in Hawaii after all."

"When are they coming back?" asked Mokuba.

"Two more weeks. Good thing I have a spare bedroom and my new step-brother doesn't have a habit of snoring."

Takeshi had taken to the idea of having a little sister with enthusiasm.

It wouldn't surprise her in the _least_ if he had somehow harmonized with her as her Rain. Though perhaps he needed that extra push before he fully became Active. She didn't feel the same connection she had with Hibari just yet.

It was close though.

Kyouya returned looking very happy and Angel was actually getting along with the violent dragon.

"The apocalypse has descended. Those two are actually getting along," said Mokuba dryly.

"Take a picture, quick," said Usagi. Mokuba snapped one with his ever ready camera (Usagi was great for blackmail photos against his brother) before grinning.

Kyouya promptly went to his couch and for all appearances went to sleep. With Angel on his chest. Mokuba and Usagi took more pictures for later.

As it turned out, Iemitsu was told that his _daughter_ (which had come as a nasty slap to the face for the Vongola, learning that their head of intelligence couldn't be bothered to remember the gender of his own child and _heir_ ) knew about the mafia enough to tell Timoteo off when he tried to broach the subject delicately.

Which meant Nana likely knew as well if Tsubaki did and that had sent Iemitsu into a panic/damage control mode.

Lal Mirch would be the one to find the divorce papers in the wrong place from around the time the rings were stolen. Needless to say a lot of questions suddenly had answers that she knew Iemitsu wouldn't like.

If Nana knew about Basil, odds were she would have sued for custody of him as well to spite her husband. Either way the failed Arcobaleno was on her way to Namimori to clear up a lot of things.

To be fair though, she could sympathize with Nana for divorcing Iemitsu. He had brought it on himself, plain and simple. She also couldn't blame the woman for remarrying either.

* * *

"...What part of 'you are not allowed to use company funding to satisfy your ego' do you _not_ get?!" said Usagi, ears and face twitching.

"Ahaha... would he really do that?" asked Takeshi. He had taken to following his new step-sister around the _second_ he heard Iemitsu was around.

"I had to threaten him with useless meetings with his parasitic board of directors when he wanted to spend two billion yen to build an overly complicated addition to the Kaiba Land theme park just to challenge Yugi and possibly hospitalize his grandfather. He really hates losing," said Usagi twitching.

Kaiba didn't back down.

"I needed someone to test out the new holographic platforms before they go public and you know I hate dueling amateurs."

"Why you all have such a fascination with that card game I will never understand. I'll allow it one condition... I'm there to supervise."

"Fine," said Kaiba. He was _not_ sulking and he'd fire anyone who said otherwise.

Takeshi found the game rather fascinating with the monsters coming to life...but he quickly found out why Usagi insisted she was there to supervise after Kaiba got through with the grandfather. She confiscated the card before he had the mind to rip it up since he didn't want anyone else to own one besides him.

Seeing the happy bunny scold the white dragon is equally amusing.

Though not as much as what happens when "Yami Yugi" as she has taken to calling the spirit inside the puzzle leaves after soundly defeating Kaiba _again_.

Seeing him leaning hard against the platform for the duelists, Usagi tries to snap him out of it. Whatever "Yami" did shook Kaiba to his core.

Finally she does something that had Mokuba looking a cross between chortling in amusement and looking away in embarrassment.

She kissed him. Right on the lips.

 _That_ seemed to snap Kaiba out of it, though he was still shaken up by what happened.

No one comments on the fact he's leaning more on Usagi than anything. They somehow managed to get back to the Kaiba mansion (Mokuba collected his brother's precious deck and Usagi put it up in her bag) without anyone else seeing them. The security cameras were turned off for the night, so no one had any idea what properly happened save for the feed that was being discreetly recorded to Usagi's personal server.

Which she had no idea how to access and even less desire to know.

Mokuba wanted to say something about the fact Usagi is using his brother as a strange sort of teddy bear...except he knew this wasn't the right time. Right now his brother needed something he could anchor himself to, if only to get over whatever it was that Yami did to him. Something real he could hold and know he could relax around.

The fact it was a major step towards the obvious threesome between the two dragons and the bunny princess (as Mokuba and even Fon had taken to calling it) was nothing really of note.

"Should I be worried they're sharing a bed?" asked Takeshi seriously. There was something in his eyes that worried Mokuba.

"Not really. Big brother will grumble and pretend nothing happened, while Usagi will blush like crazy about using him as a teddy bear... and then Kyouya will respond in kind because both of those idiots have been circling around her for months now and he's not about to let big brother one-up him like that. He'll probably stake his claim while that idiot is within view just to rile him up or something," said Mokuba rolling his eyes. "My brother is a bit too leery of someone trying to him for his money, fame or just to get closer to him for the company to do anything more than cuddle at this point."

That seemed to settle something in Takeshi's gaze.

"Who's Kyouya?"

"You might know him better as Hibari," said Mokuba dryly. Takeshi choked on his spit.

"Seriously? Hibari, as in the demon prefect who beats people up with his tonfas if they're ever late. That Hibari?"

"Again, the two of them have been circling Usagi-nee for months now. There's even a betting pool on which dragon she's going to pick."

"...Really?"

"Mama and a few others are betting on a threesome. I don't know if my brother or Usagi are aware of the pool, but I've seen Kyouya smirk whenever it's discreetly mentioned or even referenced."

Takeshi scratched his head.

"How would that even work out? I don't see either of them sharing well."

"You'd be surprised. My brother and Kyouya have this weird friendship going on. From what Kyouya's uncle said it's only working out because their 'territories' don't clash and because Usagi acts as a major buffer between them."

That...and there was something _odd_ about Kaiba's Flames. He wasn't an Inverted Cloud (he was more like Kyouya... a Classic Cloud), but something seemed to be off about them.

It wasn't until Fon factored in the effect this...shadow magic...had on flames that he figured out what was going on.

Shadow Magic ate Flames, and used them to fuel even stronger abilities. Which was why Ba-Ku-Ra had been given a second chance in order to shield Usagi from the worst of the effects that can have on a Sky.

Seto Kaiba and most of Yugi's little group (which included Ryou at this point) were all naturally predisposed to using Shadow Magic on top of Flames. Yugi, Ryou and Seto in particular. Which meant that their 'magic' was eating away at their natural flames to fuel itself, which caused an odd ripple.

By this point Fon had already pegged what Flame type each of Yugi's little friends were.

Yugi was a Sky (which explains why Usagi had gravitated to him so fast...some Skies naturally fell into resonance with each other), Anzu was a Sun, Jounouchi was a Storm, Honda was a Rain and Ryou was a particularly odd Mist. All Yugi was missing was a Cloud and Lightning and he'd have a full set, even if they were all Latent and likely would remain so considering the nature of this shadow magic.

He might have been able to make Seto his Cloud...except Usagi was somehow able to attract _both_ powerful Clouds to her first. How she managed to find two rather proud Cloud Flames who's territory wouldn't clash with each other to the point they could tolerate being in close proximity for extended periods of time was quite the mystery. Most would have chased the newcomer out ages ago.

Especially Kyouya.

Usagi still needed several more to add to her Sky. Fortunately Fon wasn't above nudging people her way to see if any would pick up on it.

After all, it wouldn't do for some third-rate mafioso to end up with his nephew's Sky and drag them all into a familigia that would only use them for their own benefit.

(As it turned out, Mokuba's prediction of how Kyouya would react to the news his brother had shared a bed with the rabbit princess was entirely correct. He not only made his own claim on her in public, but he made damn sure Iemitsu was watching the whole thing. The Inverted Sky was positively livid about it.)

* * *

"How was your honeymoon Mama?"

"It was a lot of fun! He knows a lot about fish. Did anything interesting happen while we were gone?"

"The jackass showed up at the office. Fortunately he didn't know Kyouya was going to be there. I have video of the dragon teaming up with Angel to kick his ass," said Mokuba cheerfully.

"...Are you willing to share?" asked Nana with a straight face. It served him right after what he put them through.

"Of course Mama! I even brought it with me!" said Mokuba. Nana beamed at him. "On an unrelated note, the two dragons have started making stronger moves towards the little bunny. Not that she hasn't made a move of her own."

"I want details, leave nothing out," said Nana, eyes gleaming.

"And that's a sign for me to let you two gossip while I get the bags," said Tsuyoshi amused. He hadn't had a vacation this good in years.

Mokuba and Nana shared conspirator looks as he eagerly told her what happened and how Usagi actually kissed his brother on the lips and then proceeded to use him as a teddy bear for an entire night. To top it off Kyouya kissed her in public with Iemitsu watching across the street and she reciprocated in kind. He had pictures of her blush.

So far the betting pool on her snagging both of them was becoming stronger.


	11. Chapter 11

Usagi carefully hid her distaste towards the fancy parties that she always got dragged to. While it was an excellent excuse to dress up (one her mother took full advantage of to braid her daughter's hair), the company left much to be desired. At this point most of the men here immediately considered her arm candy for her boss.

The ears really didn't help that impression.

Fortunately it seemed she wasn't the only girl being leered at by dirty old men. Another girl with pale skin, dark indigo colored hair and a nervous attitude like a skittish kitten with a far too skinny frame was sticking close to the wall. From the looks one woman was giving her, it didn't take a genius to guess she had been dragged here.

Usagi made a beeline for the girl.

"This is a rather boring party isn't it?"

The girl eeped, making Usagi feel very sympathetic for her. She knew what it was like to be completely out of your depth like this.

"I'm Usagi... Mr. Kaiba's personal assistant slash secretary. And this is Angel," said Usagi. At his name, the bunny poked his head up from her hair and made a rather adorable sound.

"Kyu~"

"I would have brought Mogget with me, but that silly cat can't help himself around shiny things."

More like she didn't want to hear anyone whining later about stolen objects, only for them to show up in her house.

Angel jumped into her arms...and the girl giggled lightly when she petted him. He was so soft and furry. She quickly checked that her mother wasn't watching before cooing at him.

"I'm N-Nagi..." she said shyly.

"Want to hide behind me and pretend you're trying to get close to my boss? Considering how often I've had to burn fan letters, I doubt whoever dragged you here would bat an eye if you did," said Usagi gently.

Nagi quickly jumped on the idea. Her mother was always trying to "train" her into being the perfect little doll. She didn't really care about her at all, except for parties like these.

Nagi stuck close to Usagi through the entire party, and while Seto Kaiba was a bit grumpy, he was all bark and not actual bite. At least not in public.

Her mother jumped on her the second the party ended and they were heading home.

"Well at least you weren't completely useless this time. Getting close to that secretary was a smart move for a pathetic girl like you."

Nagi didn't even wince...she was used to this sort of thing.

"In fact...perhaps it would do you some good to get even closer to her. Everyone knows that to get close to Seto Kaiba you have to get past that assistant of his. Even his own board can't go near him without her approval."

Nagi didn't dare hold out to hope. She really, really wanted to see Usagi-chan again. She was the nicest person she had ever met and she felt all warm around her.

So it was with great surprise that Nagi was enrolled in Domino High School in the same class as Usagi and her boss. It was a limited freedom, but it was more than she ever had before. Usually she had to sneak out of the building to get away from that place.

"Nagi-chan!" said Usagi happily.

Her life was finally looking better... especially since, and she didn't know _how_ Usagi did it... her mother handed over full custody to Usagi's mother Nana. She would rather live with Usagi and have actual friends than live with her 'mother' ever again.

At least they cared.

* * *

"I have a bad feeling about this tournament."

Kaiba looked at Usagi, who had a dead serious expression on her face.

"How bad?"

"As in it will grow overly complicated when the finals come up and I have the _worst_ feeling that it's a prelude of things to come. That...and I noticed the board having secret meetings with the man hosting it," said Usagi seriously.

"You too? They're not exactly subtle," scoffed Kaiba. He was hoping to use this as an excuse to kick them all out and replace them with competent, _loyal_ people.

"Shall I hire extra guards? If they're planning something stupid..."

"Tell Kyouya he can bring in his own men until this gets sorted out. At least Kusakabe is competent," said Kaiba.

Usagi was already texting Kyouya, who sent one back.

"Kusakabe and the _older_ Disciplinary Committee members will be here in the morning. A full guard will be posted around all vulnerable employees. If you wish to attend this...Duelist Kingdom and deal with Pegasus personally, then I can arrange for someone to join you," she said, pushing up her glasses.

"Get me a list of potential bodyguards from _that_ side of the world. If we're going to be dealing with this magic nonsense, then I want someone who can at least fight back since I refuse to deal with it," said Kaiba.

"At once, sir," she said professionally. She was already scrolling down a list of potential bodyguards based on experience and compatibility.

One in particular caught her eye. A Gokudera Hayato.

Kaiba looked through the list, before dismissing several. He scrolled down and had a candidate pool of five people...including the silver haired bomber.

"What does your intuition say?"

"This one. According to his file he wishes to be the 'Right Hand' as his life goal. Part of that sort of duty would require some body-guarding experience _and_ he has a very high IQ score which means he might be able to at least keep up with your thought process. Plus he has had some training with the Rain Arcobaleno, so he had some experience with weaponry other than his primary ones."

The kid had some good prospects...however there was a note about his rather explosive temper.

"Take Kyouya and go meet this 'Gokudera' in person. I want you to size him up, since you're better at first impressions than I am."

"Plus there's no room for interviewing potential guards on such short notice in your schedule. Chrome was a lucky find, even if her home situation left much to be desired."

Nagi had opted to change her name, to get away from her mother and the abuse she suffered. Usagi could fully relate...she had done the same thing under different circumstances.

Two days later, five days before the tournament was scheduled to begin (Kaiba got an automatic invite), Gokudera Hayato arrived in Japan.

At first he assumed the guy was the potential client... until the girl spoke. There was something compelling about her...bunny ears and all.

It was rather hot, actually. Though he was able to keep his teenage hormones in check at the thought.

"So let me get this straight. You want _me_ to join your boss in this tournament and guard him from any tricks this 'Pegasus' guy has up his sleeves since he's been meeting the board of directors in secret. I can't use bombs and I have to at least pretend to know what I'm doing when it comes to playing this card game."

"The rules are clear. So long as you have one star chip they can't kick you off the island. And it would be a bit overkill to hire the Storm Arcobaleno. And considering we're almost certainly going to have some openings if the board is stupid enough to try something, if you impress the boss then you might find yourself employed. He doesn't discriminate about age so long as you're competent."

"...This boss of yours is the same age we are, right?" asked Hayato seriously.

"Give or take a few months, yes."

"If you can get me caught up on the rules of this card game, I'll take the job. It has to be easier than trying to make a name as a hit man at any rate."

"I've seen your file. You want to be the right hand of a familigia, correct?" said Usagi.

Hayato had to wonder what this girl had to do with the mafia. The fact she was able to reach out to hire him at all said she had connections, but she didn't feel like most did. She was still innocent...she had never bloodied her hands.

"Yeah. It's about the only thing that's kept me going some days."

"Body-guarding is at least part of the work, correct? Not to mention the inevitable paperwork. If the boss likes you enough to replace one of our board members, then you could consider it work experience. It might be enough to impress _someone_ at least," offered Usagi.

The corporate world wasn't as bad as the mafia, but it came close. There was just a lot more subtlety involved and far less open killing.

Hayato brightened at that idea, and hoped like hell he did a good enough job to earn a position like that.

* * *

Hayato picked up the basics of this "Duel Monsters" in a few days. He wasn't quite proficient as Kaiba was, but he could pass as better than a rank novice. The fact Mokuba (who knew quite a bit despite being more of a 'capsule monster' fan than a card game enthusiast like his brother) helped him make a well rounded deck and had him play a few times against him meant that Hayato could at least keep up with the beginners.

Scoring an invite was rather easy. Apparently Pegasus really wanted Kaiba on the island for some reason, so he sent an extra to the bomber. He didn't even care that the kid had never played before or that he would be Kaiba's official bodyguard.

Usagi would stay behind with Mokuba, to keep the company running and to act as a witness in case someone tried to kidnap him.

That...and Usagi had little interest in the game itself. She didn't know what everyone's fascination with the cards was. Even Yugi was obsessed with it!

Chrome was helping Mokuba with his paperwork. She took to the secretary role rather well, especially since Mogget would shamelessly mooch off her. She loved cats. He was currently around her neck like a living scarf, purring against her skin.

Usagi was finishing up something of her own when she noticed one of the meeting rooms was active.

"Hey Mokuba... was there anything scheduled for today in Meeting Room five on the thirty-second floor?" she asked, using the built in Bluetooth in her ears.

" _Hang on, let me check. I don't see anything on my end. And I recognize some of those thugs from the board meetings... actually, it looks like there's a helicopter on the roof with a logo... What the hell?"_

"What is it?"

" _What is Pegasus doing_ here _?"_ said Mokuba irate.

"What?!"

Within minutes Mokuba, Chrome, Kyouya and Usagi were heading to meeting room five.

They managed to catch the tail end of it, but Mokuba was heartily glad Usagi's ears were more than mere decorations. And that his brother liked to 'upgrade' them out of boredom and to make Usagi even more efficient when it came to keeping his day organized. She had come a long way from the skittish bunny he had first hired.

She managed to catch Pegasus openly suggesting they _kidnap_ Mokuba and herself to use as leverage against Seto. Not only that, but she had full access to all the security footage and was already downloading _everything_ as the thugs attempted to grab him.

Once again, they stood no chance against Kyouya.

Though they did run into a snag when it came to the elevator.

"Crap. I think they cut off the power to ours to keep us trapped. And they probably hacked the security cameras already... who knows what they would do if we tried to get out?" said Mokuba.

Usagi frowned. She really, really didn't want to do this... but they were trapped in an elevator that could fall if those men tampered with it. That would be fatal the second it hit the ground.

"Ba-Ku-Ra... if I give you some of my Sky Flames, could you get us out and back to my apartment?"

The cat, which had been watching everything from around Chrome's neck, yawned.

" _Easily done, Usagi-hime,"_ said the cat.

"What the hell?! Your cat talks?" said Mokuba in shock.

"Your brother got his ego handed to him by a five-thousand year old pharaoh, and you're surprised by a talking cat?" she countered.

"...Point. So how are we getting out of here?" asked Mokuba.

Mogget jumped off Chrome's neck. He wrapped his tail around his legs and looked at them all, red eyes gleaming.

" _Just hold onto Usagi-hime and I'll handle the rest. Not even that idiot with the Eye can do this just yet...if he even knows_ how _,"_ said Mogget smugly. From what he could tell Pegasus' control over the shadows was half-assed at best. He could seal souls into cards or read minds, but that was about it.

Chrome and Mokuba grabbed her right arm, while Kyouya took her left hand. Angel, as always, was resting between her ears.

Usagi felt the drain on her Flames, but that was about it. With a loud yowl, the floor _under_ them gave way to a swirling vortex of pure darkness. Chrome yelped and hugged Usagi's arm closer to her, and Mokuba held on that much tighter. Kyouya frowned, but threaded his fingers through hers and didn't let go. It almost felt like falling, but it wasn't.

Then they fell _hard_ onto the 'ground'. Which was as dark as everything else was around them, save for the light shining from Usagi, Kyouya and surprisingly enough, Chrome. Usagi was the brightest, Kyouya had a steady purple and indigo glow around him, and Chrome had a soft indigo coming from her.

Ba-Ku-Ra grinned, as he landed easily in his human form.

" _So where do you want me to drop you off? With the Rain or with your Shadow Cloud?"_ he asked.

"Takeshi, please. It will be easier to hide us dropping in my apartment than the area Hayato and Seto are in," said Usagi.

"...Do you have a collar around your neck?" asked Mokuba, fascinated. It was like an orange band around his neck that lead straight back to Usagi, with a tiny bell.

" _It keeps me tied to Usagi. I'd rather serve as her guardian spirit in the Shadow Realm than be stuck where she found me. At least this way I can be around people I can stand,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra.

Kyouya narrowed his eyes at the man. There was a tone in his voice when he spoke about the little rabbit he didn't like. Ba-Ku-Ra snorted at the look he was giving the older male.

" _Relax...she's more like a little sister to me than anything romantic. Your only competition is the other cloud dragon,"_ he said without looking back.

Kyouya backed off, satisfied. Clearly "Mogget" wasn't going to try and stake his own claim on _his_ rabbit.

"This place is creepy," said Chrome, hugging Usagi.

" _It's supposed to be. This is a realm where souls hold more power than anything else. A realm made of darkness. It's called the Shadow Realm..."_ said Ba-Ku-Ra.

Takeshi nearly jumped when they appeared out of a swirling vortex in the living room.

"Usagi?"

"We had a small problem in the building. It looks like we'll be working from home until this stupid tournament is over with," said Usagi tiredly.

He didn't ask. Though he did make a note to see if his dad was still willing to teach him the family sword style. How could he protect his little sister (a role Usagi accepted with a great deal of enthusiasm) with just his baseball skills?


	12. Chapter 12

Kaiba took it as a _very_ bad sign when Usagi didn't answer the phone at her desk. He had a strange 'itch' at the back of his mind telling him that she was in danger and it bothered him enough that he decided to check in.

He didn't even say a word when he heard an unfamiliar voice...he hung up immediately.

Usagi would _never_ let someone answer her phone and the other employees knew better.

On an unrelated note, Hayato was turning out to be a much better bodyguard/conversationalist than he could have hoped. Even if his interest in "UMA's" was a bit odd, he at least seemed to apply his natural genius to make it _sound_ scientific. And he was able to keep up with the high level accounting that was standard in corporate businesses.

His current one was a complete idiot who could _barely_ keep pace.

"What's wrong?"

"Someone answered Usagi's phone," said Kaiba, already dialing her personal cell. Only a select few had that...the rest had to be rerouted through the company cell phone.

" _Hello Boss."_

"What happened?"

" _We have proof enough for you to fire most, if not all of the board. They were having a secret meeting with Pegasus and he openly suggested that he hold Mokuba and myself for ransom. They even stopped the elevator to trap us...fortunately we managed to get out_ ,"replied Usagi.

Kaiba scowled.

"And where was Kyouya?"

" _How did you think we managed to avoid being captured in the first place? Even he couldn't hotwire the elevator without potentially causing it to drop,"_ said Usagi. _"Besides, I highly doubt even you would believe_ Mogget _is normal in any sense."_

Kaiba snorted. Usagi attracted protective carnivores like moths to flame. And no, he was never going to admit perhaps he spent far too much time with Kyouya if that comparison was the first thing that came to mind. Regardless of how hard he _knew_ Mokuba would laugh his ass off if he found out.

Besides, he saw a strange shimmer over that cat every so often when the light hit it just right, showing a man with familiar white hair, tan skin, a scar on his right eye and a far more predatory grace than his younger, more innocent doppelganger ever had. His red eyes would watch _his_ rabbit with a protective gaze...it was clear where that "cat's" loyalty lay.

"Hmph. Where are you now?"

" _Holed up in Kyouya's apartment with his best men around us. They do the shopping and deal with any of the idiots trying to grab us...and if I need something in particular I'll send Mogget."_

"Good. Is Mokuba with you?"

He could sense the raised eyebrow.

" _Really? I would have thought such a thing was_ implied _without having to confirm it. You really think I'd let someone kidnap him and hold him against his will as leverage against you? He's my conspirator, after all."_

"I believe the term you're looking for is enabler," said Kaiba dryly.

More like Usagi was enabling a blackmail habit he hadn't known Mokuba had in him, and letting him act like the kid he was without worry. Everyone was too busy noticing her or Kaiba to bother caring about what his brother did so long as he was discreet. He had never thought his precious little brother would be this happy around someone other than him.

It made all the sacrifices over the years worth it, to see his brother safe and happy. For that reason alone he would have fallen in love with her.

Instead it just bound them closer together.

Kaiba noticed his guard returning with food. Hayato was a much better conversationalist than most of his 'class', never mind the idiots he dealt with in the rich cliques. He was clearly born to his own rich clique...it showed in his clothing and behavior.

He was raised among high society, but not to a family that wanted him. The way he watched how Seto had treated Mokuba and the way Usagi acted as though Mokuba was her little brother with envy and a hint of sadness said volumes. He likely had an older sibling, though not the best relationship. And the way he spoke (when he wasn't swearing or switching to Italian) said that he had a quality education...there were also callouses consisted with piano playing on top of his use of dangerous chemicals. The smoking habit was annoying, but that was about it.

In short a rich kid who decided living on the streets was preferable to being caged. One who wasn't ashamed to do whatever it took to make his own name, rather than live off the names of his ancestors like so many idiots.

If the teen was actually competent as a guard, Kaiba might very well hire him as an accountant or as a member of the board, depending on his tastes. The male was like an abused dog... one who had been kicked often, but once you had his trust he was absolutely loyal to you.

It was a miracle none of the mafia had snatched the kid up. That kind of devoted loyalty was worth more than his weight in gold.

"I got the food, boss."

"I might have a job for you when this damn tournament is over. You're good at making discreet 'accidents' that leave job openings, aren't you?" he asked.

Hayato blinked.

"I can do a decent car bomb... not so good at making the thing fail when you want it to. Why?"

"My idiot board tried to kidnap Usagi and Mokuba to use as leverage against me. I'm not about to let that sort of stupidity _stand_. Especially when the fool hosting this tournament was in on it."

Hayato's eyes went hard.

"They tried to kidnap Usagi-hime?" he blurted out.

Kaiba didn't raise an eyebrow. Though he was highly tempted.

"She escaped... though I'm not exactly inclined to be merciful to idiots that stupid."

"...I'm a decent sniper and I know how to dispose of a body," said Hayato seriously.

Usagi had given him a chance above several qualified candidates. More than that, she was giving him a shot of making a real name for himself and it wasn't out of pity. She honestly believed he could handle himself in the deep waters of the corporate sector. And if he could survive those, then it was a mere hop into surviving the mafia.

Kaiba had openly admitted he trusted his PA's instincts when it came to people... she could read them more efficiently than he could, and without alerting them to the fact.

Besides, there was something so open and warm about Usagi that he couldn't help but gravitate towards her. He was also _very_ aware that the two dragons (the nickname had firmly stuck and likely always would at this point) had staked their claim romantically on her.

He was fine with that. He'd rather be around Usagi-hime as a friend than bother with fighting for something that would only end in misery. He was the bastard son...he didn't deserve someone as pure and good as Usagi.

Kaiba looked at Hayato's eyes before he snorted.

"You're so caught by her aura, it's not even funny."

"What?"

"Sky Aura, or Sky Attraction...whatever you mafioso call it. You're caught in her net and you didn't even notice."

Hayato gaped.

"How in the hell do you know about that?"

"Kyouya, the other dragon, is the Storm Arcobaleno's nephew. Besides, didn't you wonder why Usagi was able to get in touch with someone from the Cosa Nostra to act as a bodyguard of all things?" deadpanned Kaiba.

The look on his face said that yes, he had wondered but wasn't stupid enough to ask outright.

Hayato might not know much about Flames, but he did know Skies were a _huge_ deal. The way the older, more dangerous mafioso spoke of "finding their Sky" with such a wistful tone said volumes of how important they were. Even Shamal would sometimes light up with some longing over meeting his Sky, though he hid it well.

If a Sky could cause _that_ sort of reaction in the womanizing doctor, then it must be very important.

"Technically speaking, she was 'cast out' by her familigia, which means she is a neutral."

At least Fon had agreed that by sealing her Flames so early, they had effectively declared they didn't want her as a Vongola, bloodline and ability be damned. The way she openly snubbed Timoteo and threw Iemitsu out said that she wasn't about to forgive them for all the pain she suffered because her biological donor was a complete moron.

If she had been any other Flame, it wouldn't have done as much damage. But Usagi was a Sky, and that automatically made her an heir. Especially since she was of the Primo's bloodline.

As far as the Vindice were concerned, she was _still_ a Vongola who preferred to work in the civilian side of things. Anything that happened between her and the Ninth generation was firmly an "internal dispute" and therefor not their problem.

Seeing the spark of hope in Hayato's eyes, Kaiba resisted the urge to snort.

"She still has 'openings' for her Elements, I believe Fon called them. If you prove you're capable I'll give you all the opportunities you'll need to act as one of her guard dogs," said Kaiba flatly. "Besides, at least you act competent compared to the idiots I've been dealing with."

Hayato was clearly calculating his options. It didn't take long before Kaiba saw determination and resolve in his eyes.

If they survived this mess without Hayato pissing him off too much (and the traitors disposed of) then the silverette would soon find himself employed permanently.

It baffled him how someone could miss this much talent under that explosive...and dare he say possibly Tsundere...exterior.

Oh well... the mafia's loss was almost certainly going to be his gain.

* * *

"Um... Usagi-nee?"

"What is it Chrome?"

"I've been having some really weird dreams lately. Not that kind!" she said quickly, not needing Usagi to have _that_ look on her face. It was no secret Usagi had yet to go past second base with her boyfriends. "But I keep seeing a boy like me, except he looks really sad and lonely. And his eyes are different colors...it's really pretty."

 _"Dreams my ass. Someone's been walking through your mind at night when your defenses are down,"_ said Mogget.

"What."

"I don't think he means any harm! He seemed really interested in my family and you..."

"Mogget... can you access Chrome's dreamscape later and meet this 'boy'? If there's going to be trouble then I want to get ahead of it if possible. Though if they're just on the same wavelength we could try to find and meet him to find out what his intentions are with Chrome."

Chrome blushed at the implications of that. The boy was really handsome.

 _Later that night..._

"Kufufufu...seems we have an uninvited guest, my dear Chrome," purred the teen. He called himself Mukuro.

" _You're the uninvited one, brat,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra crossly.

"It's still really weird to see you like that, Mogget," said Chrome. The fact she was completely at ease with him said a lot.

"What kind of name is Mogget?" asked Mukuro snickering.

Ba-Ku-Ra looked at him...and felt immediate empathy.

" _How many?"_

"How many what?" asked Mukuro.

" _How many times were you thrown into hell and forcibly dragged back?"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra with a flat voice. Something in his tone caused Mukuro to pause, before he really looked at the man.

"Six," he admitted.

" _Tch. The more I learn about the Cosa Nostra, the more they look like complete idiots. Where are you at now? My Master will almost certainly want to meet the boy who's been traipsing around her little sister's mind at night."_

Whatever tension he had dropped. There was something about the way this 'Mogget' spoke that said he knew exactly what sort of pain Mukuro had gone through in hell, and that he might have a way to crawl his way towards something close to redemption.

"Kufufufu... I'm currently in Korea at the moment with my minions."

" _How many, and can you make your way to Domino, Japan? If you can't you'll have to wait until I either get a read on where you're at and bring her with me, or until their schedule clears up enough that we can retrieve you,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra seriously.

"There's four of us at the moment, though one of them is more of my thrall than a minion."

Ba-Ku-Ra grinned at him. Chrome had a bad feeling about this already.

" _Really now? Enslaved or just loyal?"_

"More of the first, though the second would qualify for my minions."

Ba-Ku-Ra laughed and Chrome remembered Usagi's comment about his origins. She had the feeling an unholy alliance had just been made right in front of her.

" _I have the feeling we're going to get along_ just _fine,"_ he grinned.

The fact that a similar smirk was on Mukuro's face did not help her mellow.

 _With Usagi the next morning..._

"Wait, what?"

"I think Mogget made an unholy alliance with the boy who's been dream-walking," said Chrome embarrassed. "Mukuro openly admitted to enslaving someone as his thrall and that he had two very loyal minions when Mogget asked."

Usagi gave Mogget a Look.

"Really?"

" _The brat has been through hell six times and is still relatively sane. If anyone can at least give him some stability and a chance to break free of whatever caused it, it would be you. Besides, I like him,"_ said Mogget openly.

Usagi winced... she still remembered how she _got_ her cat in the first place.

Well, it couldn't be worse than having to deal with her so-called biological father.

Tsuyoshi was a much better replacement.


	13. Chapter 13

"Looks like the tournament is starting," said Usagi, turning on the TV. There was a live feed online for those who could afford it and you could switch between duels. Considering there would be nighttime dueling, it made sense that all the cameras were running 24-hours and even had a blinking light when a new one started up.

Pegasus was definitely a bit miffed that he couldn't get to Mokuba or Usagi, but he was patient. They would have to come out sometime.

"Look, there's big brother!" said Mokuba excitedly.

"I didn't know Jounouchi and Ryou were invited as well... hang on... could you pan out for a second?" said Usagi.

"Is that Anzu and Honda? I thought they didn't duel?" said Mokuba.

"They _don't_. They must have snuck on... then again they are Yugi's Guardians even if their flames are firmly of the Shadow variety... it makes sense they wouldn't want to stray too far from their Sky," said Usagi.

Because of the unusual nature of shadow magic and the way it used Flames to make itself stronger, she had come up with a new term for those who could use both. One Fon agreed suited the mess she found herself in rather well, even if the name could have used a bit more creativity. Sometimes simple worked best.

Usagi had two "Dark Guardians" as she called them... one was a 'dark Cloud' (and her boyfriend), the other was her 'dark Mist' (who was her cat/guardian spirit).

Yugi on the other hand, had exclusively all dark guardians. Sun (Anzu), Rain (Honda), Storm (Jounouchi) and of course his tentative Mist (Ryou). He was just missing a Cloud and a Lightning to complete his set, whereas Usagi was missing a Storm, Lightning, and Sun.

Though she had the feeling her "Storm" would soon fill itself if things worked out with Hayato and her boss.

"And there's Hayato. He looks rather bored with it all," said Usagi.

With the opening ceremony over with (it was televised along with a scheduled _four hours_ of dueling action on the TV...the site was much more reliable and you could record the action) the duelists dispersed with the rookies getting right into things the first chance they had.

Kaiba just looked bored and more than a little annoyed with the whole thing, with Hayato following him dutifully.

"...You did confiscate his bombs...right?" asked Mokuba.

"He has a hammer space connected to his bomb supplies, and he's smart enough to know how to adjust with common chemicals. Though from the way he's acting I think he wants to avoid embarrassing your brother so he can get a real job and possibly move up the ranks."

Mokuba shook his head. It was pretty obvious to anyone with eyes that Gokudera was almost certainly 'caught' by Usagi's Sky and would only take real offense if someone went after _her_ , not his brother. Gokudera probably thought of himself as back-up/distraction for his brother, rather than a guard.

Though to be fair, that could also apply to Fon. His frequent visits to Domino didn't seem like they had anything to do with Kyouya at all, and he always went to see Usagi first.

He seemed to enjoy coming to see her, since they honestly didn't give a care about what his pacifier meant or treat him differently. Apparently he was some big deal in the underworld and he found their attitude because of a cursed accessory very irritating.

Though when asked later, Fon openly admitted that he came partly to bask in Usagi's Sky... it was gentle and warm without the usual cloying and oppressive feel of a Sky trying to force a Guardian bond. That and she fed him...Usagi was a very good cook, as she learned it from Nana.

He was also to blame for the trouble magnet that got bored one day and decided to follow him. Though that would be much later...

* * *

Usagi stared at the quartet (though one was clearly being controlled) before her.

"I don't believe it," she said flatly.

Mukuro wasn't the only one who tensed.

"You actually found someone as damaged as the darker side of Ryou that's trapped in the Ring...except he seems to at least doesn't do the trapped soul thing that _he_ does," said Usagi, staring. "I can see why Ba-Ku-Ra likes you so much."

"Who?" asked Mukuro with open confusion.

Usagi held up an amused cat.

"Mogget is easier to pronounce and much less confusing," she admitted.

"Confusing?" said the blond with the scar across his nose.

Usagi pulled out a laptop and managed to find the feed she was looking for.

"This is Ryou Bakura... Mogget's reincarnated and much more innocent half. The Ring he's wearing around his neck has Mogget's more...malevolent...side that was trapped there after he made a deal with a demon. The half that's inside has no idea who or what Mogget is, just that he's skilled with shadow magic."

Mukuro was fascinated.

"What's Shadow Magic?" he asked curiously.

Mogget's grin was rather terrifying. Without any warning he dropped them all in the shadow realm for five solid minutes.

They came back shaken, but unharmed.

"Mogget!"

" _They asked for it...and now they know not to piss me off or mess with you, unless they want a repeat visit."_

Usagi lightly bopped the cat on the head before explaining.

"So what exactly can you do, and I don't mean your illusions or mind-walking ability. I mean actual skills... it'll be easier to help you acclimate to the city if I can convince the boss into hiring you."

"You're not mafia are you?"

"Only through a particularly annoying jackass who I will pretend to look the other way if you send screaming if he comes anywhere near me or mine...he still hasn't gotten the memo that my mother divorced him," said Usagi without hesitation.

Mokuba spoke up for the first time.

"She's a personal assistant/secretary to my big brother, who runs Kaiba Corp. We managed to get rid of the weapon running aspect of the business, but the board is still pissed about it since it was making so much money and they were able to make more side deals to line their pockets," said Mokuba rolling his eyes. "So technically we _do_ have underworld connections, but my brother doesn't want to use them since it just brings up annoying memories of our step father."

"To be fair, the higher up in the corporate world you get, the harder it is to avoid the Cosa Nostra. It's just as bloodthirsty, except with half the corpses and issues with the cops," said Usagi in a deadpan.

"Sounds about right. Big brother usually deals with most of it, though occasionally something slips through," said Mokuba.

"Sounds like fun."

"How good are you at talking rings around people and making them dance to your tune?" asked Usagi.

Mukuro did that weird laugh of his.

"Rather well, if I say so myself."

"How would you like to get paid making adults wet themselves at the mere thought of having to deal with you in a meeting room while discussing business deals?" asked Usagi.

Mokuba took one look at Mukuro, who _looked_ like a panther in human form, then at Usagi before he realized what she was getting at. Then he started laughing.

"Oh god... if we train you up right you'll eat most of the idiots my brother has to deal with alive! And that's before you use any powers!"

"Say what now?" asked the blond, utterly confused.

"You remind me of Loki, from the _Avengers_ movies. And the first thing I think of whenever I see him is always that he would make a very successful and terrifying lawyer. Which means lots of power, a lot of people cringing at the mere thought of facing you when it comes to business deals, and you get to intimidate others. Even the mafia respects a damn good lawyer, according to Fon," said Usagi.

Mukuro looked intrigued by the process.

"So I would be paid to screw people over and generally make their day worse, on top of any 'shady' dealings you want me to deal with," replied Mukuro. He looked like he was honestly considering it.

"What about the other three?" asked Usagi to Mokuba.

"The adult we could probably hire to act as another bodyguard if he was interested, or maybe a driver. The silent one looks like he'd be good in the technical department where they build all the fun stuff, or perhaps in the private garage. As for the blond... I don't know, Mukuro's assistant maybe? He doesn't look like the type who'd enjoy being behind a desk," said Mokuba without hesitation.

The blond grimaced at the mere idea of paperwork.

"Maybe as a tester for all the new games and devices we send out... you like to play rough with your things, right?" asked Mokuba.

"He never takes care of them properly," complained the silent one.

"Well then he could probably help test the durability of those 'duel disks' my brother was working on. Odds are he'd be glad to have someone who could really give the tech a good beating outside of regular dueling," said Mokuba.

Usagi nodded.

"Because obviously kids will get their hands on them, and teens aren't always the most responsible with their devices. Better to see how good it is in the lab and work out the kinks before they go out on the market."

"What exactly would this 'testing' involve?" Mukuro asked sharply.

The glint in his eyes told Usagi a lot more than she had guessed.

"Not human experimentation. More like general wear and tear from careless users and we pay for the health coverage. The boss has been trying to move _away_ from shady dealings since he took over."

Mokuba cut in.

"You get to play with all the latest game consoles and devices that we produce before it goes on the market. That includes the holographic ones."

The blond looked wide eyed at the idea, before he pointed at the laptop screen where a new duel was playing.

"You mean like those platform things?"

"Yup."

"I'm in!" he said enthusiastically.

Mukuro looked at his minions and thrall... Lancia was a hopeless case...he'd follow Mukuro's orders or else. But the other two escapees of the labs (who had attached themselves to his hips and weren't about to leave anytime soon) looked openly interested in the job offer.

He was openly intrigued by the idea of being a lawyer himself. It wasn't like the civilian side of things could charge him with anything.

So at Usagi's request he let Lancia go.

He didn't hear what was said between them, but the lone adult of the group agreed to the offer after Usagi showed him something from around her neck. Whatever it was had to be very important, because Lancia's eyes damn near bulged out of their sockets when he recognized it.

Still, Mukuro felt like he had made a very good deal...both for him and his minions/thrall.

It wasn't until he accidentally stumbled across a ring that immediately resized itself to his hand that things got complicated.

"What is this?" he demanded. He could read the word "Vongola" clear as day on the damn thing.

Usagi took a look at what was on his hand before rolling her eyes.

"That looks like the Mist ring of the Vongola."

"You're mafia."

"I _did_ say I was involved through my jackass of a biological father. I never said I _liked_ the man or the group he's with. As for the rings, the only reason _I_ have them and not to Vongola is because Mogget stole them to create a lot of chaos so my mother could divorce my ex-father without him finding out until it was too late to do anything. Now they're just insurance against the Cosa Nostra trying to force me or my Guardians to join a familigia."

Mukuro stared at her. She smirked.

"I'm technically a civilian. As far as the Vindice are concerned I'm still a Vongola and any attempts to reclaim the rings or try and force me back is an internal dispute. So long as we don't go breaking their laws, they'll leave us alone."

Mukuro flinched at that.

"What did you do?" she asked tiredly.

"Wipe two familigias off the map. One of which was my own," said Mukuro.

"And I doubt you were subtle about it, which means the Vindice are probably looking for you," she sighed. "Start from the beginning and we might be able to make a case for your freedom along with the others."

By the time Mukuro hesitantly finished, Usagi was furious. _For_ him and the two other former experiments. She was downright pissed.

"Let me get this straight. Your own _family_ used you and your friends as human experiments which are banned by any sane government that doesn't want to be lynched by it's own people...and Lancia's family was stupid enough to take you in without bothering to check and see if you needed therapy?!"

Lancia looked at her wide eyed, hearing that. It didn't excuse what Mukuro did, but it did explain _why_.

Usagi took a deep, calming breath.

"Lancia-san, do you have the contact number for the Vindice? I think we need to clear up the confusion regarding Mukuro's criminal status..."

Mukuro blinked.

"What?"

"You were experimented on relentlessly enough that you're as twisted as Mogget when he's in the mood. Which means your first 'crime' was the result of a psychotic break and self-defense. The second can easily be chalked up to PTSD and the fact you weren't given any treatment for the torture you and the others suffered at the hands of the Esterneo...which means you _weren't_ mentally culpable in any sense of the term when you wiped out Lancia's family. The fact you kept the person who you had several positive interactions with is another sign that you snapped from the stress of being around the same sort of criminals who caused the trauma in the first place."

She looked at him, hard.

"In short they have nothing to actually charge you with so long as you don't go on another rampage without being provoked first," she said flatly.

"You... You're actually going to argue in our defense against the Vindice?" he said in disbelief.

Good things did not happen to him or the others. They had come to accept that as fact.

"Chrome likes you, Mogget likes you, and I can see you've been horribly mistreated by the mafia in general. Besides... neither of the two are suited to act as my Mist Guardian and the ring clearly likes you best," said Usagi shrugging. Then she grinned. "And that's not getting into the fact it would piss the Vongola off immensely that they have zero say in how I pick my Guardians. If you're anywhere near as inventive as Mogget when he's annoyed, then I'll gladly turn a blind eye if you happen to traumatize the current head of CEDEF so long as it doesn't come back to me."

It took Mukuro several moments to register he was actually _smiling_ , rather than the smirk he usually had. He felt _happy_ around this girl and her weird quirk of dressing up as a rabbit. It took him even longer to register the warm hug.

It felt...nice. Soothing.


	14. Chapter 14

Mogget took _one_ look at the Vindice enforcers before he openly snorted. The mafioso might be terrified of them, but he recognized them for what they _really_ were.

" _So that's why I always felt the twinges of shadow travel. I thought the magic was lost when the Items were first sealed off until recently,"_ he yawned.

The lead Vindice (a man Usagi would learn was named Jager), paused and looked at Mogget hard. The cat gave him a fanged grin.

" _ **How can you use the Flames of Night?"**_ he demanded.

" _Flames of Night? Is that what you lot are calling it? I've been around_ shadow magic _for millennia, brat. Though considering your condition I'm not surprised some Flame users were stubborn enough and willing enough to sell their soul to the shadows in order to gain the ability,"_ said Mogget. He looked at them hard. _"Though it seems you've limited yourself to physical manifestation of shadows and traveling between the shadow realm, rather than explore the full use of it."_

Jager looked at him. An unreadable expression was on his face. Then he turned to Usagi and Mukuro.

" _ **You may plead for his case. Bear in mind if you fail to satisfy our boss that we will arrest him and his cohorts and pass judgment on you as well."**_

Usagi switched into professional mode, her glasses glinting and obscuring her eyes slightly as she laid out exactly why Mukuro was not mentally culpable of his crimes. She didn't waste her time on legalities, just laid out the cause and effect and how it factored into his actions.

She also showed the Mist Ring which had definitely taken to him more than it had Chrome or Mogget.

Jager was silent. Her case had merit and would easily have been valid in a civilian court. He was definitely impressed with how she laid out the facts and didn't bother to try and explain away Mukuro's actions. He had killed and he wasn't even remotely sorry for it and would do so again if given enough incentive.

There was no way they could let him go...he already had a bounty on his head from the familigia's allies who were less than happy about the massacre and the sudden power shift.

However... the fact the Vongola Mist ring seemed to have bonded with him over the girl waiting in the eaves who could have passed for Mukuro's sister or at least close relative suggested that a compromise could be reached within reason. If their boss was remotely willing to make one.

Jager left the two others there, to make sure Mukuro didn't try to pull a runner. An hour later he came back...with a toddler-sized version of themselves, just with a clear pacifier around his neck.

Bermuda was naturally surprised/alarmed that a "cat" (who was obviously a Mist) knew more about the Flames of Night than he did...and that he claimed they had merely touched the surface of it's applications.

Still an agreement _was_ reached. Mukuro was allowed to go free...on the condition that he act as Usagi's Mist. The other two were of less consequence, as Mukuro was known to be their ringleader.

Considering he could have been thrown into Vindicare, it was a deal he was more than willing to make.

Then Bermuda turned his attention on Ba-Ku-Ra...who took them to the Shadow Realm to explain things to them.

There was a reason why the Vindice never stuck around while using their teleportation trick. They were naturally leery of the Shadows and the monsters within.

" **Talk,"** said Bermuda scowling.

" _First off, this is my real form. However I am restricted from using it too much outside of here. I am a 'guardian spirit' for Usagi. Second, how exactly were you able to draw upon the Shadow Realm? I thought that ability was lost when the Items were sealed up."_

" **I wasn't about to lay down and die when the Arcobaleno curse drained my Flames. So I reached out and pulled for the first thing I could get my hands on. I woke up with these Flames and it took me years before I had a handle on them to the point I could bring others back. I assume you have an explanation as to how,"** said Bermuda flatly.

" _Shadow Magic feeds on Flames. It must have sensed your anger at the situation or the desire for vengeance and latched onto what was left of yours until it completely took over. I'm guessing those pacifiers are acting as the conduit..."_ mused Ba-Ku-Ra. _"I'm guessing you've mastered shadow travel and manifestation of the shadows...likely those chains of yours. What other abilities have you noticed?"_

" **Possession of a corpse, mostly,"** said Bermuda. **"We have rules about it's use, mostly so we have an excuse to deal with anyone who awakens this...shadow magic... without the mafioso realizing they can use it as well. Not that anyone outside our group knows about it."**

" _Then you haven't even tried the rest of it,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra amused.

" **What?"**

With a little concentration, Ba-Ku-Ra summoned his Ka beast.

" _This is another application of shadow magic. It can summon a creature from the Realm of the Beasts to act in your stead or to fight other Shadow Mages. This beast is only as strong as you are, and if it's destroyed then you die,"_ he said bluntly. _"There's also the fact you can directly manipulate souls, such as sealing them into objects, banishing them here to be killed or tormented until you let them out, or punishing them by trapping the victim in their own mind. Of course there are seven Items to make that application of the magic easier and they've been around as long as I have. Right now the only person skilled enough in the magic's use is me, though the inheritors of the Items might regain their ability to use it. Exactly what rules do you enforce when it comes to this particular magic?"_

" **You have to have a physical body and you can't target civilians or break Omerta,"** said Bermuda immediately.

" _That's it?"_

" **We didn't know there was an actual use for the Flames of Night beyond instant travel, the chains or possessing people,"** admitted Bermuda.

" _Hmm..."_

From the way the mafioso reacted around this lot, having their good side was a very good idea.

" _I can teach you some of the other aspects of the 'Flames of Night'. Though I'll warn you that now that the Millennium Items are active and out in the world again you'd only have a headache trying to keep them in check. You'd be better off leaving that idiot Pharaoh and his group to deal with it... it's their problem after all."_

" **Pharaoh?"** repeated Bermuda incredulous.

With a bit of concentration, Ba-Ku-Ra showed the others the destruction of his village and the creation of the Items. He also threw in several visions of how Shadow Magic was originally used and the general rules of Shadow Games.

He also pointed to the Pharaoh and his darker half.

" **May I ask why you included him and the other?"**

" _The runt is supposed to deal with rogue Shadow mages as part of his trial. If he manages to survive and his reincarnation beats him, then he gets to go on to the afterlife...from what Usagi and Fon told me, the bastard is a 'dark Sky', meaning most of his Flames were traded in for his ability to use shadow magic. His reincarnated self is still able to gather Elements, but not enough that you'd need concern yourself with. From what I can tell they're all strictly civilian and have no idea how to use Flames...they're more likely to stick to Shadow magic."_

" **Dark Sky?"**

" _Usagi came up with it. She calls anyone who can use Flames and Shadow magic 'Dark Guardians', and adds the word 'Dark' in front of whatever Element they have. It helps to differentiate between normal Flame users and those like us,"_ he clarified.

Bermuda nodded. It was simple, straight to the point and it made it easier to classify the two groups.

" **Which familigia is she with?"** he asked Jager.

" _Technically she's Vongola... but they apparently decided they didn't want her after she went Active and put a seal on her,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra immediately. His grin was rather feral. _"I wonder how they'll react when they find out I gave those precious rings of theirs to the girl they cast out when she was five."_

 **"What."**

Bermuda did not sound happy.

" _According to the ghost of the Vongola Primo...who brokered the deal for my release out of this place... her father ordered her to be sealed the same day she went Flame Active and Vongola Nono used a Sky Seal that didn't even remotely deal with Sky Attraction. They knew what her Flames were, and they still put a seal on them rather than train them,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra.

" **...Are you telling me that the Throne of the Sky, where the Vongola dons all rest, is** _ **accessible**_ **from here?!"** said Bermuda in disbelief.

" _It's not that hard to jump from one soul realm to another,"_ shrugged Ba-Ku-Ra.

Bermuda twitched hearing that.

" **Just out of curiosity, what would happen if someone tried to seal... say, a god, in here?"** he asked twitching.

" _Depends on the god. Though I highly doubt any of the ones that deal with the shadow realm fully remain...most of what was left are remnants since only the Egyptians from a very small time frame had access to here before the Items were sealed at the Pharaoh's death."_

" **So if we were to toss the Arcobaleno Administrator in here..."**

" _He would have one hell of a time getting out on top of dealing with the monsters that can come and go freely from this realm into the real world. And if he has Flames...well, that tends to draw them like catnip,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra, eyes glinting with malice. _"And that's on_ top _of whatever punishment you intend to give said 'god'."_

Bermuda looked positively vindictive. They had given up hope of killing the man who cursed them, or at least giving the bastard a taste of his own medicine. They would have been happy ruining the entire Arcobaleno system in the first place.

They might not be able to kill Checkerface or whatever he was calling himself now... but they could make his life very difficult in between the time he had to deal with the Arcobaleno curse passing on.

Ba-Ku-Ra knew the feeling. If he could have managed it he would have dumped that damn Pharaoh here for a few years, hopefully forget about the ass, and then come back to finish him off.

Sadly the runt was just as skilled, or would be again.

And if there was one thing Ba-Ku-Ra and Bermuda could relate with, it was the matter of getting revenge on the people who had screwed them over or wronged them.

* * *

 _Outside the Shadow Realm..._

"I have the weirdest feeling that another unholy alliance was just made and that Mogget is in the center of it," announced Usagi.

Mokuba paused in eating his pizza.

"What."

"I think I'm starting to develop a radar for upcoming headaches involving shadow magic, unholy alliances and all out chaos," admitted Usagi.

"It could be the Vongola's famous Hyper Intuition," offered Lancia.

"Or it could be common sense," snarked Mokuba.

"I'd put as both," said Usagi amused. Which only grew when Mogget came back looking _very_ smug.

"So how goes the tournament?" asked Takeshi.

Mokuba pulled over the laptop and brought up the 'rankings' of the current duelists. So far his brother and a few others were looking good to reach the finals, and several newbies had already been eliminated from the running entirely.

It made things a lot easier, even if everyone had a good, long laugh when they came across a rather _amusing_ section that they would point out later to Yugi and the others which read simply as "Tag-Alongs/Cheering Section"...with Ryou, Honda and Anzu's pictures posted for all the world to see.

In fact...

"Mokuba, could you call your brother for a moment? He's about to run right into Yugi's group. I think they should see this as well," said Usagi, eyes sparkling with amusement.

Mokuba snickered and dialed his brother. They could watch the whole thing from the laptop.

" _What?"_

"Big brother, you're about to run into Yugi's group. Mind passing something along for us? You'll like their reactions," said Mokuba.

" _What is it?"_ he asked curiously.

"The entire world knows that three people snuck in that aren't duelists and the website with a running list of active participants openly labeled them as tag alongs slash cheering section," said Usagi dryly.

Kaiba blinked, before he smirked as well.

" _Where did you say they were again?"_

"Keep going straight and take a left and you should run right into them. They're close to the cliff face," said Usagi with glee.

" _I see them now. What site are you using?"_

Armed with the rather entertaining news that they had been busted thanks to the live video feeds, Kaiba walked right up to them...before handing over a tablet to Yugi with the site already up and the pictures posted.

The reaction of Yugi's friends was _hilarious_. Usagi took pictures for future blackmail.

Even Hayato was snickering at the looks on Honda, Anzu and Ryou's faces.

Yugi had a sheepish look on his face, handing over the tablet once Jounouchi saw what his 'rankings' were.

Someone with the handle of TheRankingPrince had been the one keeping _that_ list updated on their dueling skills and everything else. It was a fairly accurate assessment from what the rest of the internet was saying.

Of course the ranking spurred Jounouchi into challenging Kaiba, who decided that since everything was on a live feed anyway he could do a little promotion for his soon-to-be up and running duel disk system... which was a vast improvement over the current dueling arenas which took up far too much space, energy and cash just to keep up and running. They were good for a few years when they were first introduced, but technology was always improving and Kaiba refused to play catch up.

After all, he had helped create the first arenas.

That done (and being rather pleased that the system worked flawlessly for a portable version) Kaiba and Hayato left Yugi and a despondent Jounouchi behind. He promptly followed their directions to an area with fewer active cameras... the only thing they recorded were the security videos that Pegasus was undoubtedly watching from the castle.

" _So what news from your end?"_

"We have four new 'recruits' to our group. A mechanic, a tester who can put the duel disks through a real work out in everyday situations, a new driver for when the current one is unavailable and a potentially devastating corporate lawyer once we've trained him up right."

Kaiba stopped cold.

" _I've only been gone for_ four days _. How the hell did you pick up four new people like that?"_

"Blame Chrome, the one who has the potential to be a good lawyer was waltzing around her mind-scape and caught Mogget's attention long enough for him to direct them here. Long story short we're stuck with them since I had to make a deal with the mafia's 'police' to keep them from being imprisoned."

" _...I'm not going to ask but I want the full story later."_

"Mukuro is going to be my deterrent for a certain jackass. He has my full permission to traumatize the man if he ever makes it past security again," said Usagi bluntly. "How's the bomber working out?"

" _We might have a new addition to the board. He's tolerable,"_ said Kaiba. Which was as high a praise as he was going to give the other teen. He was still a hot-headed idiot, but that could cool off once he realized they weren't going to cast him out like the mafia had a habit of doing. So long as he did his job and was loyal, Kaiba could care less _what_ the teen's habits were like. Even if he did have a rather disgusting smoking habit.

"Oh and it seems Mogget has made a grand total of two unholy alliances. I thought it best not to ask," said Usagi.

Kaiba shook his head in disbelief. The things his aide/secretary kept getting into without even trying...


	15. Chapter 15

"...You would think Pegasus would at least be _discreet_ about the overt use of shadow magic," said Usagi dryly.

" _He's going to lose that Eye sooner rather than later, flaunting it like that. Probably to my darker half,"_ admitted Mogget.

"Let's hope it's painful, because the gods only know he's going to be in a _mood_ after that stunt," said Usagi dryly.

Mogget leered at her, though not in a perverted way.

" _Your sarcasm has vastly improved! I'm so proud!"_

Usagi grinned.

She had gone from a shy, skittish little rabbit who was scared of everything to a rabbit-eared demon with glasses that could eat grown men alive and still be sipping her hot drink without even being phased by the screams for mercy.

Tsubaki (her old self) was the skittish one and she only came out when the ears and tail came off. Usagi was a confident woman who worked in the higher tiers of the corporate sector... you either grew a spine and some sharp claws/teeth, or you got eaten alive very quickly. If she had just remained a simple secretary she might have kept most of her old self.

But a personal assistant had to learn fast how to keep up with their boss...especially with someone like Seto Kaiba.

He was rather pleased with the result. She was still the same girl, but now she had a backbone and wasn't afraid to cut someone to shreds with mere words and a look.

(On an unrelated note, Kaiba _and_ Hibari would often have to take some very long, COLD showers whenever they saw the Dominate Usagi in action. Much to the amusement of Fon and Mokuba, who made a point to bring out that side of her whenever and wherever possible within view of both Clouds.)

Mogget looked at the screen, then turned to Usagi with a grin.

" _Perhaps I should introduce you to a shop I found by accident. I'm sure they could give you some tips to use on your boy toys to bring their mood up."_

Usagi took one look at his smirk and rolled her eyes.

"Pervert."

" _I'm a guy trapped as a cat. What the hell else would I be?"_ countered Mogget. He got a lot of nice views from his new form.

"On a completely unrelated note... where is this place again?" asked Usagi mischievously.

"I sense chaos and I want in," said Mokuba, practically teleporting to her side.

"Want to see your brother's brain crash completely?"

"God yes. He doesn't give me nearly enough opportunities to get blackmail I can actually _use_ on him."

" _If we play our cards right, you can get both the dragons!"_ grinned Mogget.

Mukuro materialized out of nowhere.

"I sense chaos."

Mokuba grinned.

"Do you like blackmail?"

"Who doesn't? Save for the idiots getting hit with it."

"Wait...isn't he a Mist?" said Usagi.

"Which means realistic illusions..." said Mokuba, eyes widening and evil grin forming firmly on his face.

"Which means..."

"UNLIMITED BLACKMAIL!"

Mukuro felt like he _should_ fear for his life and/or sanity...except his sanity had been cast aside years ago and this was way too much fun to pass up on. Besides, he had died six times. It was boring for him.

* * *

 _In the Shadow Realm..._

Seto Kaiba paused in whatever torment Pegasus thought could top _anything_ he found on the internet when he was bored (he had a lot of free time thanks to Usagi and a love of horror movies) to face palm.

"Dear god, Mokuba and Usagi have found even _more_ enablers..." he groaned. He glared at the monsters that surrounded him with a passion. "And you aren't even that scary compared to my assistant without her coffee in the morning during that time of the month! At least show some originality! You're positively boring and cliché!"

Surprisingly the monsters stopped what they were doing, looked at each other, and then at him.

" _ **Prove it."**_

Well, Mogget _did_ say he had an aptitude for shadow magic and part of that was creating this crap...

Seto Kaiba focused on his view of Usagi when it was that time of the month, she was out of her morning coffee and chocolate, and she was about to come face to face with her birth father who was trying to get her to go back to being a scared little girl.

Seeing the monsters pale in front of a tiny, rabbit-ear wearing, caramel-haired girl with glasses using a very terrifying Stare down technique was hilarious.

There was a damn good reason his brother said he was whipped. He didn't even deny it!

* * *

Usagi looked at the website and saw that the tournament was ended. Also, she had an e-mail. From the one who had kept a running "ranking" of the participants on the site.

Clicking it open, she found a link to a video chat site that was free.

Imagine her surprise when a kid a little younger than Mokuba showed up on the screen with big wide eyes.

"Hello. Are you the one who was updating the rankings on the site?" she asked curiously.

Age was _not_ an indication of skill or ability. Just look at the havoc _Mokuba_ could cause when he was properly motivated. And those rankings were surprisingly well thought out.

" _Hi! Are you Usagi-nee-san?"_ he asked in broken, but still understandable Japanese. However she did recognize the light accent.

"Relax, I speak Italian. And yes, I am Usagi."

The relieved expression said volumes. And the second Fuuta pleaded his case (apparently according to whatever Fuuta used to do his rankings, she was rated number one as someone who couldn't refuse children in need and she had no ambition for his book) Usagi saw red.

One thing was for certain. Her mother and _father_ (it was easier to equate Tsuyoshi with the word, since he had at least been there when Iemitsu never was) were going to be thrilled with a little kid around the house. It wasn't confirmed, but Nana had been making noises about a 'surprise' for Usagi and Takeshi when they visited again.

She would not be shocked if her mother was pregnant again. Her mother loved kids, but due to Iemitsu's constant absences she only ever had her.

"Fuuta-kun... could you give me a general idea of where you are so I can send Mogget to pick you up?" asked Usagi twitching.

Or if that failed, ask the Vindice to drop the cat off so he could kidnap the kid? From what she could tell they _liked_ Ba-Ku-Ra enough that they might look the other way if he asked for a small favor. He was teaching them things about their Flames of Night they never knew were possible. Hell, he was teaching Mukuro and his minions how to steal!

Fuuta panned the screen out, and her twitching got worse. She was really, really starting to understand why Mukuro hated the mafia so much.

The kid was in a gilded cage. A nice one, admittedly, but still a cage. And as the girlfriend of two very possessive Clouds (at the same time, no less) there was nothing more that she hated than cages. If only out of sympathy for Kyouya and Seto.

It only took an hour or two for Mogget to be dropped off (by a very amused Jager) and return with one extra.

Fuuta practically tackled her in a hug with open relief. He was a koala on her leg when she introduced Mokuba to his first minion and possible new little brother.

The evil grin would have sent any adult running with a scream about how the end of times had come. He was that happy to have someone he could corrupt.

Fuuta was just glad Mokuba had no interest in his precious book outside of random rankings for fun.

* * *

Kaiba took one look at the 'strays' his girlfriend somehow managed to acquire in less than a week, then at Usagi.

"I need to get you a better bodyguard. How the hell did you bring this many in without even leaving the house for the better part of a week?"

"She's a Sky. They tend to collect people," said Fon blithely. "Especially strong ones like her."

Kyouya by this point had come to consider his uncle a piece of the furniture, so long as he wasn't forced to interact with him. His apprentice on the other hand, was more like a little sister. A fact I-Pin took full advantage of whenever possible to curl into his lap when she was sleepy.

If Fon wasn't Harmonized (even partially) with Usagi, he'd eat his tonfas. He was around too often for him to simply be partial to her.

Or it could be the blackmail. He seemed to take great enjoyment in helping Usagi set up situations where he could blackmail his nephew with the evidence.

Kaiba gave Fon a look.

"If you keep hanging around her like this I'll be assigning you as her permanent bodyguard," he deadpanned.

"Hmm... multiple chances to be around my favorite ("I'm your only nephew, you senile annoying carnivore.") nephew and a rather adorable Sky that provides endless entertainment. And plenty of time to train my apprentice. Sounds like more fun than I've had in years, actually."

"You just have to keep her from picking up more strays. At least not _five in one week_ ," said Kaiba sourly.

"Her habit might calm down once she fills out her Guardians. It's a known fact that Skies her age tend to draw people in large quantities if they don't already have a full set. Most familigias tend to pressure their children (if they're Skies) to fill out their Sky early one with political matches, especially if it would encourage them to find suitable romantic partners," said Fon amused. He eyed Usagi with open amusement and delight. "Though in her case the pull was strong enough to rope two _Clouds_ at the same time... and they're notorious for being the hardest to draw in."

"How so?" asked Kaiba.

"Territory, mostly. Clouds need someone strong enough to 'dominate' them without trying to force them into giving up whatever territory they've claimed. Kyouya is a very strong example of what's known as a 'Classic Cloud', meaning he's territory oriented and won't bow down to just anyone."

"If that's the case then how did she pull it off?" demanded Kyouya.

"She's _technically_ part of your territory and she seems to have a Cloud secondary. Though in her case her territory is 'family' over a location or business like you two. Think of it this way... Seto rules over the heavens, Kyouya rules over the mountains, and Usagi rules over the sky between them," said Fon.

It took them a moment to get what he was saying. It was like a three tier system, which only worked because none of them were interested in trying to interfere with the other's territory. The only reason none of them tried to fight out whenever another breached their territory was because the female acted as the mediator between the two fierce dragons.

Fon long suspected that Usagi was the personification of the Feng-Huang...it would explain so much, like why she drew the two Cloud dragons to her first, rather than any of her other elements.

Seto eyed Mokuba new little friend tiredly.

He could see why Usagi let Mukuro, Ken and Chikusa stay...they would all be highly useful once properly trained (Ken had put three devices through a stress test already and allowed them to discover someone had dangerously cheated on the materials...some of those fragments would have earned them a lawsuit if it struck someone!), but Fuuta was still a kid. An admittedly smart kid who knew exactly what person to contact for protection, but still a kid.

His ranking ability was useful, but not worth the headaches of dealing with an upset Usagi and Mokuba over exploiting it.

So Seto made the decision to let the kid stay... his brother was clearly happy to have someone his own age that he could talk to freely, who didn't care about the fact he was rich or had parents that would want to abuse that friendship to gain favors.

The worst part? The more he looked at Fuuta, the more Seto saw _himself_ in the kid...except Fuuta didn't have a reason to be ruthless. He saw the child he could have been if he hadn't had to be the older brother, to be crazy enough to challenge the billionaire weapons smuggler into a chess game and forcibly change their destiny.

Seeing the kid sitting in Usagi's lap, happily basking in her Sky and knowing he was _safe_ from the machinations of the mafia, Seto realized he was defeated before he had a chance to fight back.

"Where is he going to stay?" asked Kaiba tiredly. Mukuro and the others were easy...they had an apartment next to Usagi and were unashamed to mooch off her for actual food since none of them could cook.

"I was thinking of introducing him to my mother... a sort of protection because if he were with us then he might be recognized by the high society crowd who have mafia connections."

"He'd be safer with us though," said Kaiba without thinking.

"True... and Mama might be a bit...busy...in the coming months," said Usagi. Seeing the look on their faces, she smiled. "She's pregnant. Two weeks along at least... both her and Papa are _thrilled_. I think Takeshi's still in shock though."

Tsuyoshi had been beyond pleased when Usagi slipped up and called him Papa to his face. The fact she was so accepting of the idea of having a real father was a good thing, and Nana seemed to have fully bounced back from the unhappy fake marriage she had with Iemitsu. Takeshi had already accepted the idea of having a little sister to dote on, the fact he was going to have more siblings had never even occurred to him.

Usagi almost wished she could have seen Iemitsu's face when he found his wife had divorced him, remarried and would have another man's child. Except Iemitsu had never been a smart man... if he knew he might do something drastic out of sheer stupidity.


	16. Chapter 16

It was no secret to the corporate world (or their smattering of mafia connections) that while Seto Kaiba was a damn dragon in human form, his assistant/girlfriend was the one with the bleeding heart. Therefor it was with considerably _less_ shock that it would have been when Fuuta de la Stella started being seen around Mokuba acting like a third member of the Kaiba family and generally acting as Mokuba's wingman for chaos. The fact he had more than a passing resemblance to Kaiba didn't help.

Obviously the bunny who had the dragon wrapped around her little finger had a hand in the boy's new home situation.

Not that anyone was stupid enough to try and take advantage of the genuinely kind heart of the girl everyone _knew_ was Kaiba's girlfriend...and possibly the girlfriend of the teen's official bodyguard. Where Kaiba found a second, more vicious dragon like himself was a mystery all his competitors would _love_ to know, if only so they could gain such effective and terrifying guards of their own. The boy had amazing instincts, going from a lazy cat to a vicious, almost untamed beast in an instant the second he detected a threat against Kaiba or the rabbit.

He was a true predator in a sea of mock carnivores and everyone damn well knew it.

Still...the news that the Ranking Prince had somehow been taken in by a _civilian_ who ran a game company of all things when he was supposedly in the hands of the Todd familigia didn't go over particularly well with their boss. Especially when he found out, no it wasn't a rumor the kid wasn't in their hands anymore... he really was in Domino!

The man was pissed. And he wasn't about to let a civilian snag the brat from him, however they pulled it off.

They really should have picked their battles better...

* * *

Hayato didn't mind being an accountant. He worked fast, efficiently and did it right the first time. Being the head of the accounting department when he proved he could handle it was such a major upgrade from how he had been surviving that he was still reeling from it. Kaiba was not exactly a patient person, he detested incompetence, and he tended to growl at people.

It was a major improvement over the people he had to deal with over the years. And like Usagi cheerfully reminded him that while he did growl at you, he never actually went after you unless you _really_ did something to screw things up. Or you were a traitor like the former board of directors.

They had absolutely no sympathy for those idiots or the thugs. Mukuro only had to see the list of things Kaiba knew damn well they had their hands in before he took over before he cheerfully made them disappear once the shock of having them all fired at the same time wore off.

The Vindice wouldn't get involved because A) Kaiba had also given them a list of things that meant that most, if not all of the board was either directly or indirectly connected to the Cosa Nostra anyway, and B) because they happened to like Mogget and to a lesser extent Usagi.

She was one of the very rare people who didn't make a big deal about their appearance or history, and instead would cheerfully send Mogget with baked goods for them to enjoy whenever he went to help them learn more about the Flames of Night.

Though even Usagi had to admit, the whole cliché "thrown into the deep water with concrete shoes" was a bit in bad taste. Even if it would throw off anyone who could track Mist Flames.

So when Hayato's limited contacts in the area (all the ones that the now-former board had in the area were quickly and firmly subverted into Usagi's hands, if only to keep Iemitsu from...acquiring...them and she gave full control over to him) heard that there were several Italians in suits looking for the 'ward of Seto Kaiba', he knew that trouble had come.

Probably whoever had Fuuta before, until Usagi cheerfully liberated him with that weird cat of hers.

As it was, Usagi had delegated Angel into acting as a discreet guard for the boy. No one would expect that rabbit to be an actual threat.

Hayato certainly hadn't...until the surreal moment he saw _Fon_ teaching the damn thing martial arts and it was able to match KYOUYA in a straight out fight. Hell, that rabbit was able to act as a sparring partner for Fon's apprentice, for god's sake!

Still...it wasn't all bad. He was able to pay for a proper apartment, food, his bombing supplies (he used the old connections from the days when Kaiba Corp was little more than a front for weapon running...Kaiba ignored it so long as he never used company funds to do it and was discreet about it), and while it was annoying to have to go to school again, at least the company was tolerable.

Yugi was another Sky who was fully in resonance with Usagi and was a nice kid overall. He knew _of_ the mafia, but he would rather remain firmly civilian.

If anyone tried to press the issue, Usagi wasn't afraid to get in the face of those stupid enough to try.

Very few would be willing to face off a very pissed off Vongola. Especially a female one.

Let it be said that Daniela Vongola made one hell of an impression during her stint as the Vongola's first female Donna, especially during World War Two. No one would dare try to piss off a _female_ Vongola Sky for fear of them turning out to be _just like her_.

And right now, seeing the way Usagi became absolutely cold and pissed off, Hayato could safely say that the girl almost certainly took after the Vongola Donna. She might be a bit...fluffier... and gentle compared to the mafia raised woman, but once something happened to raise her ire...

Hayato was very, very happy to be on _her_ side of this particular mess. Between the vindictive and terrifying Mukuro, the strong and relentless Kyouya, the surprisingly cold and steel-like Takeshi, her terrifying rabbit and weird cat, the minor familigia thugs were screwed the second they targeted Fuuta and she found out about it.

The fact she _trusted_ him to protect Fuuta and Mokuba from being kidnapped made a warmth spring in his chest. Sure, he couldn't throw his bombs in a civilian city, but he was a decent shot with his gun.

Not that he needed it. Usagi wasn't in the mood to be _nice_ to child-stealing thugs. And she was particularly fond of Fuuta like a little brother.

It was only after the brief skirmish (well hidden by Mukuro...) ended and they went back to the office during their slightly extended lunch break that Fon alerted Usagi to something he found amusing.

"It seems you've found yourself a decent Storm. He'll need to be properly trained up though."

"What?" choked Hayato.

"It means you're properly one of us now," clarified Usagi, amused.

"One of us, one of us," chanted Mokuba with a grin.

If this was what it was like to be part of a Sky, to be part of their _family..._ then it was no wonder so many sought after it.

Now if only he could get that damn Takeshi to quit flirting with him!

* * *

"Ciaossu."

Usagi didn't stare for more than two seconds at the 'toddler' accompanying Dino Cavallone to the fancy party. She had meet Reborn before, briefly.

"If you're looking for Fon, he's currently with Mokuba and Fuuta. I'm afraid the Todd familigia haven't gotten the hint that the Ranking Prince is officially _off-limits_ ," said Usagi cheerfully.

Dino openly choked hearing that.

"Wait... how do you..."

He had thought the current leader of the Kaiba Corporation had burned those bridges years ago when he took over. How did she...

"Stupid-Dino, use your eyes," said Reborn, slapping his student on the head. "Iemitsu Sawada's _daughter_ , I take it?"

"Oh believe me, Timoteo Vongola had a rather nasty shock finding out I not only knew the truth, but that I was rather pissed about the fact he was trying to cozy up to me after what he pulled when I was five. From what I understand he was less than happy finding out that the jackass hadn't been keeping track of me like he claimed," said Usagi with a straight face and a hard expression in her eyes.

Reborn approved of her immediately. He had liked her before, when they were in Italy for business and her professional approach with dealing with him.

Finding out she was already part of the Cosa Nostra (firmly on the fringes for the moment, but still) and knew how to handle herself in the shark infested waters was a pleasant surprise.

"You said Fon was here?"

"He apparently likes hanging around me too much to leave. Something about how my Sky doesn't irritate him as much as others have before," she replied.

Reborn raised an eyebrow, before going over to chat with his fellow Arcobaleno.

"Ciaossu Fon."

"Reborn," said the Chinese Storm, sipping a cup of proper tea in his hands while sitting between the two younger members of Kaiba's group.

"The rabbit girl. Explain."

"Vongola Sky that was cast out by her idiot father who didn't want to train her when they already have heirs...it came back to bite them rather spectacularly as you can see... and already has half her Elements plus a few 'extras'," said Fon bluntly. "Does not care for the Vongola or the mafia outside of keeping her family safe."

"Are we shielded?"

"Kufufufu... go ahead and chat, Arcobaleno. I'm merely here to learn about the sort of snakes I'll be dealing with later and to act as a body double if needed," said a sinister voice. Reborn raised his eyebrows when he saw _Mukuro Rokudo_ leaning calmly against the wall like he belonged there.

Clearly the younger Kaiba already knew of the mafia thanks to the girl, and Fuuta was in it long before Usagi was. Well...if they were shielded from casual idiots trying to hear their conversations.

"I have the feeling I'm going to need a drink after this."

"Almost certainly. Just don't share it with the kitsune or the little bunny," said Fon, pulling out a bottle of proper booze.

It didn't take a genius to guess that the younger Kaiba was the kitsune, and Fuuta was the bunny.

"So...let's hear it then," said Reborn cheerfully. This sounded like it would be hilarious and informative.

Fon smirked.

"She's different. She lets her Sky out freely, but she never tries to flare it against people. You could literally be in the same room and bask in it without having to worry about her trying to dominate you like some of the others do. And she takes very good care of her people. She finds ways for them to integrate into the company she's with while working as a personal aide/secretary for the dragon that runs it."

"Secretary?" said Reborn. Skies generally took charge and acted as leaders. Having them work as an underling was very unusual.

Mokuba snorted.

"Usagi-nee takes care of the domestic stuff, like making sure everyone is in good housing, eating right and that they're happy. She has no interest in the company itself, and she prefers to work from the shadows as the 'friendly' side of my brother so he can be as ruthless as he wants. Everyone knows by this point she's pretty much his right hand when it comes to being the 'good cop' of the business."

"Kaiba rules the heavens with an iron fist, Usagi rules the Skies, and Kyouya rules the mountains," said Fon, using the comparison he gave before.

"How does that even work? Two Clouds normally don't drift in the same Sky, much less so seamlessly."

"Kyouya has no interest in Kaiba's territory, which is his business and his family. And Kaiba has zero interest in Kyouya's territory, which is Namimori and Usagi. So long as she is content to share, they will as well. It doesn't hurt that her Cloud secondary has apparently latched on to a more domestic approach than theirs have."

Reborn hummed. It was rather fascinating to watch, actually. Normally Clouds (save for Skull, who was a bit of an oddball) would feel agitated and angry if another Cloud entered their territory.

And yet between Kaiba and Kyouya, there was almost no friction at all. It said a lot about the rabbit girl's ability and Flame Purity that she could bond with _two_ Clouds and have them working in perfect harmony with each other.

Hell, she even had FON basking in her Sky...and from the looks of it slowly building up what was unmistakably a Guardian bond. That took power, purity and in the case of the Storm, respect.

Fon was a dragon in his own right, and would not be tamed by force alone. He was an honorable man and if he didn't respect you, then he would be a _nightmare_ to deal with.

And yet a girl not even out of high school had managed to impress him to the point he was sitting around sipping tea with the occasional shot of alcohol while _babysitting_ two kids. Fon was more relaxed than Reborn had ever seen him in a very long time.

And that made her far more interesting than he had originally expected.

Usagi barely even batted an eye when he cheerfully sprang off Dino to sit on her shoulder. Clearly she was used to it.

Now that he was closer he could feel her Sky...and he could see why Fon was addicted to it. She didn't try to pressure anyone, she just let it hang around naturally. Power that literally hung off her tiny frame like a cloak.

He had been around the Vongola Nono and on a few memorable occasions Vongola Ottavo.

And he could safely say she was stronger than _either_ of them untrained as she was. She had the aura of Daniela and the power of someone stronger than even Luce had been.

Reborn smirked under his fedora. He wondered if she'd be interested in some tutoring on the mafia side of things. While she had a decent grasp she could be so much better with a little training. Besides, he could tell she still had an opening for a Sun.


	17. Chapter 17

Kaiba was rather pleased when he completed the _official_ duel disk system that would be handed out in a tournament to promote the new way of dueling. Thanks in part to Ken, who was a disaster when it came to technology and made the new disk damn near bomb proof...which was also tested by a very enthusiastic Hayato, to the horror of the scientists who created it...he knew that the things could not only handle whatever the system threw at the duelists, but could also handle _normal_ wear and tear, on top of whatever careless children/teens would do the things.

He was _not_ getting sued just because the "new fad" he created somehow turned to shrapnel.

Though Usagi had, in a fit of mischief with a bit of sneakiness from Mokuba, put in a rather unusual warranty that he didn't notice until he started up the tournament.

 _ **Replacement duel disks will be provided should the story be**_ **believable** **_and_ entertaining _enough, free of charge._**

Seto wasn't entirely sure he liked the way Mokuba seemed to open up and let his naturally impish side out thanks to Usagi providing Kaiba a lot of stability he had been missing. He had always known his little brother had a dark side, but at least with Usagi around it had been tempered to something that was socially acceptable. Most of the rather dangerous misbehavior he had noticed around his little brother was more or less curbed within two months of hiring her. She was a calming influence on his hellion of a brother.

And then he got a headache. He fully blamed the female Dark Cloud with the prophecy stick (and it was a sad fact when he could peg a person's flame type within minutes) and the fact she tried to shove him into an illusion for setting off a powder keg they had no idea was even _there_.

Usagi could not use Shadow Magic.

Let Seto Kaiba rephrase that. She was completely and utterly incapable of _using_ or manipulating it in any way, shape or form, because people who _could_ were broken in some way down to their soul. Like a missing limb where the magic or 'Flames of Night' acted as some form of twisted spiritual glue to keep them together.

Even that odd man Bermuda had commented that if her Flames ever twisted to the point she could use shadow magic, then all hell would break lose because she would be stronger than _any_ of the Vindice. Her flame purity and power levels were _that_ high.

There was a reason why Ba-Ku-Ra, or Mogget, had been given a chance to earn his redemption. It was so that she was never forced to _learn_ how to use the Flames of Night out of self-defense from the sheer crap that was going to be following Yugi as the dead guy in his puzzle got his powers back and killed the demon that got stuck in the Ring.

And Isis had just set off what was either an instinctive self-defense mechanism or something entirely related to the Vongola.

Seto Kaiba didn't care. All he knew was that his girlfriend passed out trying to divert that damn vision, before a wave of pure _power_ crashed through the place and he felt something 'click' inside his soul.

Almost like an anchor had been formed between him and Usagi. He would find out soon enough that he wasn't the only one who felt it. All of those who had bonded to her, even partially, did.

Fon found the partial bond he had with Usagi turn into a full blown one without any warning at all and it left him reeling from shock before he was able to compose himself.

And around Usagi was a corona of _power._ A crown of flames and eyes that burned like the sunset. More unsettling was the fact that the ring she kept around her neck out of habit than anything else was also burning.

He would only find out later that those bonded to her, that she had given the _other_ rings to (save for Lightning and Sun) blazed with the fires of their owners, in response to her own.

"What the hell happened?" he demanded of the annoying Cloud that he would very much like to _drive_ out of his territory as instincts demanded.

Mogget appeared in a blaze of black fire, took one look at Usagi and then scowled at the woman. He shifted to his _real_ form, horrifying the Egyptian Cloud greatly.

" _Fuck. I didn't think that damn_ necklace _would set off the trial that midget warned me about. At least the seal is finally gone for good."_

"Trial?"

" _I'll explain later. Mukuro will be here in a minute to take her place while I get her back to the others. Fon will have a better idea of what to do,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra, exasperated beyond belief and running his right hand through his hair. He glared at the woman with annoyance. _"And you! Don't bother shoving visions down his throat... he barely believes in the 'mythical mumbo-jumbo' as it is! Just tell him what you want and get lost!"_

Mukuro appeared, took on Usagi's form, and Ba-Ku-Ra carefully took Usagi through the Shadow Realm back to what they considered "home base" for quiet discussions. AKA Seto Kaiba's personal lab where only a handful of trusted, _loyal_ people were allowed anywhere near.

She would be out cold for the hour it took Kaiba to get back. He was not happy.

"What happened."

It was not a request.

Fon sighed.

"It seems that in response to the mental intrusion, the ring forced her to undergo the 'Vongola Trials'...a requirement to be acknowledged as the next leader of the familigia. I don't know _what_ it involves, but I know that it changes those that survive it profoundly. The fact her flame was burning so bright is the only sign we have that she's still alive in there," said Fon. His face quickly turned into a frown. "We can almost certainly expect the Vongola to make themselves known soon. I highly _doubt_ that the Ninth wouldn't have sensed the ownership of the rings changing to the new heir."

The fact that the man still had a son left (not including the bastard one who was still on lock-down) meant there was going to be a lot of confusion and headaches coming. Usagi would need to complete her Guardians fast, just in case.

Usagi woke up...and shivered in disgust.

"Hime! Are you alright?" said Hayato in concern.

Kaiba was the boss, but Usagi was their Hime. Their Princess. She let her people do their jobs and kept things running behind the scenes.

"That was horrifying..." she said, shivering. Within seconds she was being hugged by Fuuta, Mokuba and I-Pin. She seemed to take comfort in their presence. "It was like I was watching the destruction of Ba-Ku-Ra's village...except it was in the first person and _I_ was playing the role of one of the brainwashed guards!"

Fon paled considerably, as did Mogget.

" _What,"_ said Mogget in a flat voice.

"There were these figures all demanding that I accept their 'sin' and take my place among them. When I figured out what I was actually seeing, I told them to go to hell and that I would sooner see them all burn before I followed their examples. Then I found myself in a place much like the Shadow Realm except it empty and there was a throne. There were eight people there, with one sitting on the throne and they called me 'Decimo' for some reason..." she said unhappily. "Something about time engraved on the ring. I was more confused and wondering why on earth my ears, hands, and tail were literally burning with my Flames."

Fon almost wanted to laugh...had it not been for the situation. Of course her weapon would be her precious ears and the tail.

"Well it seems that the infamous Vongola Trial managed to completely remove your seal," said Fon. "Though now we'll have to redouble our efforts to fill your Guardian posts. Once the Vongola figure out what happened, they're almost certainly going to be making a visit here sometime soon."

Usagi wasn't the only one who grimaced. Vongola meant Iemitsu, and that meant headaches abound.

Usagi suddenly blushed as she remembered something rather mortifying. Fon suddenly grinned.

"I'm guessing the people you saw were the former Vongola Dons... so what did Daniela tell you?" he asked far too amused.

Her face was completely red.

"She said that polygamy was _allowed_ in the mafia... and that she completely approved of my two dragons. She said you two were quite the catch," said Usagi in a mumble.

"Wait...who's Daniela and why do I have the sudden urge to laugh at my brother evilly?" asked Mokuba grinning.

"Daniela is the 8th boss of the Vongola familigia and the only female one. The current boss is her son," said Fon. "As for the polygamy thing... I was waiting to spring that on you three for _months_ once you started to get serious."

"Wait, what?!" squawked Kaiba in horror and mortification.

"What's polygamy?" asked Fuuta.

"It's when someone is married to more than one person. A 'monogamy' is the standard two person marriage," clarified Hayato.

"Really now..." said Mokuba grinning.

"That does it... you're joining Chrome in the next set of ears testing," said Seto crossly.

Usagi had set off a sort of joke among the staff of Kaiba Corp...it wasn't uncommon for them to wear animal ears just out of amusement if nothing else. So long as they could do their job, Kaiba honestly _didn't_ care if they did.

Though only Chrome had gotten a pair of moving indigo colored cat ears and a long tail she used as a makeshift belt that worked the same was Usagi's own set did.

Kaiba was going to stuff Mokuba in next month's fox ears just to get some blackmail of his own on the brat.

"So...does this mean I should just call you Aneki from now on, Usagi-nee?" asked Mokuba innocently. It got the poor bunny to sputter a bit.

Kyouya however was focusing on Fon.

"Small carnivore. What sort of characteristics would you expect to see in a sun or a lightning?" asked Kyouya.

"Well a Sun would be a natural healer. Think a cleric from one of those games I always see Mokuba playing instead of doing his homework..." said Fon ignoring the indignant squawk from Mokuba at being outed in front of his brother. "However a Lightning is more like a tank. Able to take hits and then dish them out if properly trained. Sun is a yellow flame, while a Lightning is green. I do know of _one_ Lightning, though he would be more likely to join the R and D department rather than fight."

Kyouya had a sudden pained look on his face.

"What is it?"

"I _might_ know an active Sun in Namimori. But he's so loud though..."

Usagi had to think about that...before she face-palmed.

"Ryohei Sasegawa?" she asked.

Kyouya nodded. He didn't _hate_ the guy, but he was so damn annoying.

"Well at least we already know he can fight. Pretty sure I saw him in some of the pit fights you like to join in so much..." said Usagi.

"He was."

"Why do I have an ominous feeling about this?" asked Kaiba.

"Relax, I might rope him in a Sun, but I'm not making him work for you. He doesn't have the patience or the skill set for it...yet," said Usagi. "He's captain of the boxing club back in Namimori, and he's always yelling 'extreme' a lot on top of trying to drag more people into his club to fight. He's a bit of a battle nut who loves boxing and his little sister."

"Really now," said Fon intrigued.

"If he can naturally heal the damage, then it explains why he hasn't gotten hurt from exercising in some rather ridiculous ways every day, all day," said Kyouya sourly.

Fon definitely looked interested now. A hand to hand fighter was his specialty, even if he wasn't a Sun. He had been around Reborn enough to know how to handle it.

If he was compatible with Usagi, that is.

Kaiba wanted nothing to do with Ryohei the second he meet the teen. He was loud, he was idiotic, and he was obsessed with his damn sport. He could see why Kyouya didn't like him either.

But... the boy had a lot of potential. A natural fighter, one who believed in honor and knew the importance of protecting family. One who wouldn't hesitate to kill if he found someone worthy of his loyalty.

Well, they said Suns were natural healers. Mukuro was already proving to be a delightful addition to his legal team. They didn't even bat an eye at getting him caught up in the 'civilian' laws so that he could use them to rip people apart with mere words. Hell, he practically _thrived_ in using his silver tongue like that!

Perhaps Ryohei had an unexpected knack for medicine? It took skill and knowledge to know how to take someone apart with your bare hands. Skills and knowledge that would serve very well in the medical field.

However he was not bringing this idiot into the company. He'd let Usagi keep him for later...maybe as a bodyguard.


	18. Chapter 18

"This is demeaning and annoying," complained Usagi.

"You lost the coin toss. Deal with it," said Mokuba.

Usagi pouted, but adjusted the outfit Seto had chosen with much amusement from the others. She wasn't used to wearing something that didn't really cover everything properly.

Damn her boyfriends for thinking it would be hilarious to have a "Dark Magician Bunny Girl" to open up the tournament and explain the rules to everyone. Her outfit covered more than the actual monster's outfit did, but it was still embarrassing.

Instead of pink and other pastel colors, she wore orange with white. There was even an orange ribbon right where her tail was, to make it even more like something out of a magical girl show.

If either of them tried to talk her into doing the voice to an anime series based off her outfit, she was going to strangle them both bare handed. No matter _how_ much she seemed to fit that genre.

Even the microphone was designed as a stereotypical magical girl staff.

She was going to make them pay for this. Dearly. Perhaps even visit that shop Mogget told her about. She was not oblivious to the way Kyouya and Seto reacted to her "Boss Bunny" side.

She went out onto the stage with a bright, warm smile and eyes that were practically glowing with Sky aura.

"Welcome to the Battle City Tournament~!" she said with cheer. "We at the Kaiba Corporation hope all the duelists enjoy our next generation duel disks, and that you all remember to duel safely! Please remember that while the authorities will not interrupt your dueling in public areas, that any street you use is clear of large traffic! We don't want any accidents out there!"

This was beyond unnerving. She hated the way everyone was staring at her, particularly the teenage boys who kept leering at her outfit.

Usagi kept smiling warmly as she outlined the rules.

"Remember folks, new rules have been _specially_ made for this tournament to fully test our our duel disk systems. Most of the ones you remember still apply, but there are now requirements to summon higher level monsters and you have twice the life point count compared to the original system! Any monster five stars or higher will require at least one 'sacrificial' monster from four stars or below! Any monsters with seven or more stars must sacrifice two weaker monsters to be summoned! Also, if your opponent has no monsters after their first turn, you may attack them directly! There is also a one-time only rule for this tournament. The losers of the duels must pay out in more than locator cards...they have to give up their rarest card! But don't worry folks... the Kame Game Shop is running a special on Duel Monster cards so even if you lose your rarest ones, you can always try your luck at getting something even better! And there's no reason you can't trade them back after the tournament!" said Usagi with a wink.

That seemed to relieve a lot of the younger duelists. The fact they could easily trade their cards back after the duel took a lot of worry off them.

Yugi's grandfather was going to have a _lot_ of extra customers for the special on Duel Monster packs... Usagi had given him a head's up on the new "One-Time Only" rule and how it made duelists trade their rare cards to the winner.

Which meant a lot of kids would likely be buying to make up for their lost cards if they couldn't find the ones who beat them. And that meant more business for his shop...he had made sure to stock up before the tournament's new rule was properly announced.

"For those of you who need to know the full list of all the new rules in play, we have included a link to the website that will be running a live feed online for a small fee! And if you want, you can record or even specially order videos of your duels to watch later offline! The higher up you go in the tournament, the less expensive it is~!" said Usagi smiling. "Also, all our duel disks come equipped with a special locator button on the bottom that can be activated by putting a card in so that you can access it. This allows emergency services to make it to your location in case something happens during or after a duel! We want everyone to enjoy this tournament in safety!"

That had been a big selling point for the younger duelists. Their families and parents would feel more at ease knowing their kids could contact the police, fire department and the hospitals if they were trapped with only their deck and their duel disk.

"We hope that you have fun and enjoy the tournament!" finished Usagi with a bright smile.

Hearing the cheering, she briefly thought that maybe this wasn't too bad. She just hoped she didn't have to wear this silly costume again to do announcing.

* * *

 _A few hours later..._

Mokuba grinned as Usagi stared horrified at the tablet.

"You have _got_ to be joking!" said Usagi.

"Apparently Pegasus liked your costume so much that he's making a special monster for the next expansion pack. The Sky Bunny Magician Girl," said Mokuba, cracking up.

"WHAT?!"

Mokuba had suggested the name when Pegasus jokingly contacted him. Mostly because he had heard a rumor that the God cards were active and would be in the tournament and he wanted to be sure that it wasn't true.

Sadly it was, but now Mokuba had a way to troll his future sister-in-law.

"And you should see how popular the Sky Bunny Magician Girl is on the Kaiba Corp's special Battle City Tournament website," he continued. "I think Seto even added a digital version to the site that fans can use to navigate with."

Usagi quickly scrolled through the site and was horrified to find her "Magical Girl" self on it, complete with Angel and Mogget.

She twitched.

"Where is your brother?" she asked seriously.

"Out testing the new card that weird Cloud from Egypt gave him," said Mokuba without hesitation.

"Right. Then where's Chrome?"

"Right here, Hime," said Chrome.

"Did Mukuro teach you illusions yet?"

"A little. I'm not as good as him but I can do some."

"Good. You're cloaking us while Mogget tells me where that shop he found is. If they think I'm going to let this prank stand they've got another thing coming," said Usagi flatly.

Mokuba grinned evilly. His brother had loosened up a lot since Usagi came...it would be hilarious to see how he reacted when they finally quit dancing around each other.

Especially if Usagi took control in the bedroom as well.

He hadn't even told Usagi the funniest part yet... people had liked her "Sky Bunny Magician Girl" so much they wanted to see her announce the finals.

* * *

Fuuta was rather happy with his role. He had been given the official duty of ranking the all the duelists in the tournament (they had given him the full list and let him write out the rankings, which he would update at midnight until the tournament was over) for skill level, strategy, and sheer luck.

It was an unbiased ranking of the participants which he could share with the world. And he wasn't being forced to do it either. It was just for fun, since so many people liked his rankings of the Duelist Kingdom tournament.

He even had Angel with him in case someone tried to kidnap him again...which wasn't likely considering he was doing the updates from the main office and looked like a regular kid with his big brothers with him. Takeshi and Hayato were acting as his discreet guards in case the mafia tried anything. Even Mokuba was getting in on it, acting as a watcher for anyone trying to break the new rules and regulations... mostly people trying to sneak past the dueling system or blatantly cheat.

He was able to walk around freely, even join school like a normal kid. Best of all he was even in Mokuba's class!

Reaching out to Usagi-nee-san was the best decision he ever made. He knew his rankings wouldn't let him down!

"Someone seems to be in a good mood," said Takeshi smiling.

"Yeah! I love being around Usagi-nee and the others!" said Fuuta happily.

Takeshi ruffled his hair playfully.

"I agree!" he said smiling. "It's like Usagi brought us out of a dark place and showed us what the light really looks like."

"She saved us from ourselves, when we didn't even know we needed it," said Hayato.

If not for her, he'd still be a low-level hit man without a chance of getting his dream job. Hell, he'd still be dodging Bianchi and her attempts to bring him home!

Instead he was actually _useful_ to others, without having to dirty his hands to do it and they trusted him to do his job. More than that, they trusted his loyalty to Usagi-hime.

She was the beating heart of their group, and they all knew it.

"Hup!"

Fuuta was grinning as he was carried by Takeshi, his legs on either side of the teen's neck while his own head rested on top of Takeshi's own. He loved this sort of thing, since he rarely got to enjoy it.

"Who's in the mood for ice cream?" asked Takeshi.

"Me!"

"Kyu!" cheered Angel from Fuuta's head. It was no secret the rabbit loved strawberry ice cream.

* * *

"You want me to _what_?" asked Usagi in disbelief through her head set.

" _It seems the Magical Girl Usagi was a bigger hit than even I anticipated,"_ said Kaiba, far too amused by the whole thing. _"So much so that we've been inundated with requests for her. Which means you're going to do the announcing for the finals too, though you can 'upgrade' your costume for it."_

Usagi's face twitched.

"I am going to make you pay for this. I hope you are prepared for my revenge."

Kaiba's disbelieving snort that she could do anything to make him regret putting her up to this irked her. Any doubts she had about using the...items...she bought from that shop died hearing it.

So he though she would let him get away with this, did he?

"So what exactly do you want me to do? And just so we're clear, I am not wearing this as my work outfit."

" _Go out and check on how everyone likes the new system. Act as our spokes bunny. Ask on what they'd like to improve,"_ said Kaiba. She could tell he was shrugging, which annoyed her further.

"Just so we're clear, I am going to be telling people you're my boyfriend. You get to deal with all the inevitable doujinshi that will spring up when they find out," she deadpanned.

" _Like that would ever happen."_

(He would come to regret those words a month later when a cackling Mokuba showed him the most interesting website he found involving "Magical Girl Usagi" with his brother in different Blue Eyes White Dragon themed outfits. The Knight one seemed to be the most popular.)

"Oh my. You look so cute!" said Nana. She wasn't showing yet, but she was glowing.

"Interesting choice of outfit," grinned Tsuyoshi. Though he was twitching slightly.

Usagi grimaced.

"I was blackmailed into it for losing the coin toss. I intend to make the dragons suffer dearly for this... if it covered more I wouldn't have minded as much, but look at this!" said Usagi in despair.

Nana giggled.

"And how do you intend to make your dragons suffer?"

Usagi had a wicked smirk on her face.

"The two tend to have some very...interesting...reactions when I make it clear I'm the one in control of a situation, not them," she replied evenly.

Tsuyoshi guffawed at the hidden meaning. The boys wouldn't know what hit them.

"Just so long as you don't make us grandparents before you graduate high school," Nana reminded her.

"Don't worry Mama, I already have that covered," Usagi assured her.

"Where's Takeshi?"

"With Hayato and Fuuta. He's keeping an eye on the Ranking Prince and Hayato is his back-up," said Usagi.

Tsuyoshi choked.

"You got your hands on the Ranking Prince. How?"

"He asked me to get him out of a cage, and I sent Mogget to retrieve him. He's much happier since most of the rankings he does now are more for fun than to advance some silly familigia. On an unrelated note, the jackass might try and make an appearance in Namimori sometime soon. There was an unexpected complication before the tournament started that will get the attention of the people he works for when they figure out where to look," said Usagi.

"What kind of complication?" asked Tsuyoshi seriously.

"The kind that requires me to find a Lightning and a Sun before they figure out what happened and raise a stink about it," deadpanned Usagi. "If they try to press the issue, I'll happily point out to the rest of the Cosa Nostra that they cast me out first the day I first went Active. I'm sure their Alliance would be _very_ interested to hear my side of the story."

Tsuyoshi winced.

"There is one Sun I could recommend..."

"Fon already tossed Colonello at Ryohei. We're giving him a month of training from the Rain Arcobaleno to see if he's worth offering a position in our group," said Usagi. "From what I heard, Colonello was thrilled to train him...something about him being able to use a special attack and annoying Reborn. It's the Lightning I'm having issues with and the only _decent_ one I know of is Verde. And _he's_ more likely to jump into our R and D department and not come out."

"I'll ask around some of my old friends if they know anyone worth recommending," said Tsuyoshi.

"I should probably get back to acting as the spokes bunny," sighed Usagi.

Nana twitched with amusement.

"Spokes Bunny?"

" _Apparently_ the whole magical bunny girl thing made me such a hit with the dueling crowd that I got roped into acting as announcer for the finals as well," said Usagi annoyed. "Fortunately I'm allowed to design the 'upgraded' outfit... I guarantee you it will have a bit more coverage than this."

"But you look so cute in it!" said Nana.

"It exposes way too much skin!" complained Usagi. "I barely have a decent chest as it is, and this thing is designed to empathize my 'assets' to the whole world! You know I like to dress casual when I'm not on the clock!"

"Well sometimes it's good to get out of your comfort zone. It doesn't expose anything too indecent at least," said Nana. Usagi pouted.


	19. Chapter 19

Bakura, the darker side of Ryou, sneered when he saw the familiar bunny girl and her damn cat. He still didn't know how that annoying pest was able to use shadow magic, nor did he care. All he knew was that the girl was vulnerable right now.

Usagi spotted him at the same time he did her. She managed to discreetly head into an alley, with her cat firmly on her shoulder.

He had no idea he was walking into a trap.

"Ba-Ku-Ra, now!"

The dark spirit started, hearing that name pronounced correctly for the first time since his sealing. The cat launched itself from her shoulder and then went _into_ the Millennium Ring. It completely vanished!

" _Was that supposed to scare me?"_ he sneered. Then he felt it. Something was wresting control from the Ring. _"Grk!"_

He had no idea what was happening. All he knew was that he was blacking out. He lost consciousness and knew nothing for several hours.

Ryou shuddered as he regained control. Then he saw the cat on the ground and paled.

"Oh my god... what just happened?" he said horrified.

"Mogget switched places with the part of him that is in the Ring. Apparently he got something of an upgrade for behaving so well, so now he can take the place of the spirit who's been controlling you since you got the Ring," said Usagi, reaching down to pick up the cat. Ryou blushed, because the outfit gave him a rather... interesting...look down her shirt.

"What happens now?"

"Now you get to deal with Ba-Ku-Ra, rather than Bakura. At least until I can start rehabilitating this one. Thanks to the collar, he can't attack me or use shadow magic against me. And I'll try to keep him away from you so he can't try to make the switch back until I see some improvement in his attitude. If it helps, he doesn't mind the nickname I gave him to avoid confusion."

Ryou felt something in the back of his mind. It almost felt like a cat stretching lazily in the sun.

He could only assume that was Mogget.

"My recommendation? Find a place where you can have a long chat with him to discuss how you're going to handle sharing headspace for a while. I know Yugi keeps getting looks whenever he talks to his spirit in public. Or you could do the smart thing."

"And what's that?" asked Ryou curiously. He'd rather not look like an insane person for talking to the other spirit in his head.

Usagi tapped her ears.

"Get a wireless headset for a cell phone. Whenever you're talking to Mogget, tap your ears and make it look like you're on the phone with someone else. They're common enough that no one can tell the difference."

Ryou smiled.

"I'll take that under consideration. It sounds a lot easier than finding a secluded place with all the dueling going on."

"I keep forgetting to give Yugi that advice, so pass it on will you?" said Usagi.

Ryou nodded, and the two parted ways.

At least he knew Mogget wouldn't be as big of a jerk as 'Yami Bakura' as he had come to call him.

* * *

Ryou found himself in his soul realm. And across the hall...was Yami Bakura's room.

Except that spirit wasn't in there now.

It was as cold and dark as a tomb.

" _I knew my other half was still pissed about the pharaoh, but I didn't expect him to keep it this gloomy!"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra in disgust. It was easier for Ryou to think of him as Mogget.

"Um...hello?"

Ba-Ku-Ra turned, and Ryou saw an immediate difference between him and Yami Bakura.

For one thing, he was tanned, wore foreign clothing and he had a scar down his right eye. There was a lot less cruelty and malice in his expression. More like bored disinterest and amusement.

" _Hello, little reincarnation,"_ he smirked.

"How did you manage to switch places?" asked Ryou curiously.

" _It became clear when she had a bad reaction to the Millennium Necklace and underwent a certain trial by accident that they needed to upgrade the powers I had available. One of which allows me to directly possess the Ring and force the darker half of my soul into dealing with her, rather than using you as a puppet. Again. At the very least she should be able to temper some of the darkness in his heart."_

"How? Forgive me for saying this, but Yami Bakura doesn't seem the type to just let go of his hatred and evil."

" _Same way she won me over. She let me claw the crap out of the pharaoh every time I saw his sorry face, even if she kept me from attacking his reincarnated side. She understood why I hate him and will never forgive what his father did to my village. Besides, you've seen the effect she has on that dragon of hers. If she's able to temper his ego, despite the fact he's lost so often, how do you think 'Yami' will fair against her?"_ smirked Ba-Ku-Ra.

Ryou opened his mouth...before he closed it, conceding his point. Yami Bakura wouldn't stand a chance against someone who could keep Kaiba from going off the deep end because of how often he had lost against Yugi. Seto Kaiba wasn't so easily tamed.

And yet he lost to a bunny girl. Who was currently running around in something close to a magical girl outfit.

"How did Kaiba convince her to wear that, though?"

" _She lost the coin toss to Chrome,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra without hesitation. _"As it stands, she's sworn to make both Kaiba and Kyouya pay for making her wear that in public."_

"Pay?" said Ryou with concern.

" _Let's just say that the two apparently have some rather amusing reactions to whenever Usagi takes control of a situation and makes them follow her orders, rather than act submissive all the time,"_ snickered Ba-Ku-Ra.

"I... did not need to hear that," said Ryou, blushing heavily.

" _Hell, thanks to her the younger brother is a total fox when it comes to collecting blackmail!"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra.

"Who?"

" _Mokuba. According to Kaiba, he had been acting out in dangerous ways...and then he started to calm down when he hired Usagi. Now he just uses his dark powers to collect embarrassing blackmail against people for shits and giggles,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra snickering. _"Fon is the one who called him a little fox."_

"Because foxes are known to be trickster spirits, especially in Japan."

It was weird... Ba-Ku-Ra was the same as his Yami, but he felt so much easier to be around.

The other spirit noticed his confusion.

" _Unlike the part of me that was sealed in here, I contain the part that wasn't entirely consumed by hate and rage. Usagi saved my soul from the punishment I had endured since the Items were sealed, which is why I follow her. He's been sleeping since then, so he hasn't had time to learn how to let go, or found someone who can change his fate."_

"You're not going to take possession of me like he does, are you?"

" _When I do, I'll at least give you a head's up before I actually do it and I won't suppress the memories. You'll know exactly what's going and I'll at least_ attempt _to listen to requests,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra.

Ryou looked at the older, more mature double.

"I'm going to try and trust you. More importantly I'll trust Usagi not to saddle me with anyone worse than the darker spirit I've been dealing with for years now," said Ryou.

And with that, Ryou took a step back to see how Ba-Ku-Ra, or rather Mogget, would handle having control of his body.

Unlike how it usually went, he was fully aware and watching everything. It was an interesting experience.

" _Bakura!"_ yelped Yugi. Honda and Anzu both looked rather alarmed to have run into him.

" _Keep your pants on, you idiot. The spirit you normally deal with is in the tender mercies of the spokes bunny,"_ sniped Ba-Ku-Ra.

Yugi looked at him for a moment, before he relaxed.

" _I didn't know you could switch places with him, Mogget,"_ he said after a moment.

" _Wait, this is Usagi's cat?!"_

" _I only recently got the upgrade. Right now_ he _is with Usagi...if she can tame Kaiba into behaving around her, she'll probably have a lot of success curbing_ his _behavior. Though the same rules will almost certainly apply."_

Yugi slumped.

" _Which means I'll have to restock my first aid supply again, especially the bandages,"_ he said in exasperation. _"How did Kaiba con her into wearing that outfit, by the way?"_

" _She lost the coin toss to Chrome, and she was blackmailed into it,"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra...before he smirked. _"I have it on good authority Pegasus was so amused by it he's openly mentioned making a monster card off it for the next expansion pack. How he managed to get in touch with Mokuba is a mystery."_

Yugi snickered at the thought.

" _If he does I so want one. The look on her face would totally be worth it."_

Ba-Ku-Ra laughed, and it wasn't the terrifying, sinister cackle of Yami Bakura. No, this one was more mischievous and amused at the fact his "master" was about to get even more embarrassed by the outfit Kaiba tricked her into.

She'd either get used to it or strangle him barehanded for starting this mess.

" _I know for a fact that her mother saw her wearing that outfit and said it was a good thing she was 'expanding her horizons'. Usagi merely complained it showed too much skin."_

Yugi openly snickered. Her outfit was really reminiscent of Dark Magician Girl with a slightly different color scheme and magical wand.

" _Personally I can't wait to see what the rabbit pulls out of their hat when they finally have to resort to something other than their skills."_

" _You mean Usagi?"_ asked Anzu.

" _I meant Angel, actually. That thing has been absorbing her energy since before I showed up to act as her shield and sword from the Shadow Realm and it's magic. There's no way in_ hell _that rabbit is normal. And that's before you get into the fact it can fight on the same level as her other dragon!"_ said Ba-Ku-Ra crossly. _"I guarantee you that thing has to have some sort of magical or supernatural powers and I bet it's going to show up sooner rather than later."_

* * *

 _Later that night..._

Usagi collapsed on her couch. She was exhausted.

That was when Bakura woke up...and he was pissed.

Usagi didn't bother to try and calm him down. She had Mukuro hold the cat up in the air where he could rant and rage until he calmed down somewhat.

"I'll admit he has some creativity when it comes to swearing, but I find him lacking compared to the one we normally deal with," said Mukuro with a raised eyebrow.

"He's been stuck in that Ring _sleeping_ for a few millennia. He hasn't had time to properly reflect or grieve over his family and is still firmly in his enraged mindset. If and _when_ he calms down, then we'll try talking to him. Until then he stays out of claw range," said Usagi flatly. "Also, I see no reason to hear the usual diatribe until he's gotten it out of his system."

Mukuro smirked.

"One silenced bubble of shame coming right up," he said with open amusement.

Takeshi came home, took one look at the floating, pissed off cat, and then looked at his sister.

"Do I want to know?"

"Mogget swapped out with the one in Ryou's Ring so he wouldn't have to deal with being forcibly possessed during the tournament. Meanwhile I'm going to force the darker side of his soul into therapy whether he likes it or not," said Usagi simply.

Takeshi snorted. This spirit had no chance against his sister.

It took the rest of the night and half the morning for Bakura to use up his angry diatribe and just look sullen. He wasn't out of things to say, but he knew that it was pointless to bitch about it when she deliberately made it so that they couldn't hear it. And something was restricting all his magic so he couldn't do more than talk! It was infuriating.


	20. Chapter 20

It probably said something that the second Usagi found out that one of the Arcobaleno was not only an enthusiast of Duel Monsters, but also in the tournament, that her first reaction was to go and grab the prototype Duel Disk that had been made for I-Pin and other "small sized duelists".

I/E young children seven plus or those who were naturally small.

However the smaller Duel Disk was a bit more expensive, and thus not available on the market. I-Pin was very useful in helping to test it, as was Fon.

Even if I-Pin was still having trouble speaking Japanese, she was making great headway.

Usagi used the people monitoring the duels to find Skull de Mort, the Cloud Arcobaleno. She was still in her now very popular "Magical Usagi" costume...sadly she was growing used to wearing the thing, though she would be making adjustments for the finals.

"Hi. Are you Skull-sama, the immortal stuntman?" she asked.

Skull blinked behind his helmet, before he took it off. She could tell right away that the "standard" duel disk wasn't really working for him, though he was doing his best.

"Aren't you the spokes bunny of the tournament?" he asked curiously.

"Yeah. Call me Usagi-chan if you want. Anyway I came to check up on you since Fon recognized your profile right away and suggested I stop by," said Usagi.

"Fon's here? That explains why my pacifier's been glowing for the past couple of days," said Skull relaxing.

"How are you liking the tournament?"

"It's great! Those old platforms were way too hard for me to reach and still be seen, though this thing is a bit bulky for me and the ante rule is kinda annoying," said Skull enthusiastically.

"I had a feeling. Fon didn't like using the standard duel disk much either so a few smaller ones were made, Arcobaleno-sized," said Usagi. "I brought one with me...it's silly to force someone your size to use the normal one when it's taller than you are. It's still a prototype though."

Skull happily traded his duel disk for something a bit smaller, but still had the same features.

"How is Fon doing?"

"If you can make it to the finals, you can have a chat with him. If not, let me know and you can hide in the break room where we're holding them so long as you avoid the cameras during the live feeds," said Usagi. "Kaiba is an Active Cloud too, though he's not Inverted."

Skull brightened up at that. Then he grinned.

"That explains so much," he snickered.

"I know, right? Mokuba is a tricky Rain, though he likes to cause mischief like a Mist," grinned Usagi.

"Should we exchange numbers or will you be able to find me if I can't make it to the finals?" asked Skull.

"The duel disks have a tracking device installed, so even if you can't make it I'll be able to find you or send one of my Guardians to pick you up. There's a reason the primary color on this costume is orange," she remarked.

"Awesome!" said Skull.

He was loving this tournament even more and more already. And best of all during his next duel he didn't have to struggle as much holding up his duel disk, which made it a lot easier!

* * *

Bakura growled at Usagi. Though that was as much as he _could_ do since the collar kept choking him if he tried to attack her.

It was getting harder and harder to resist _purring_ every time she stroked his ears or hugged him too her chest. And the weird warmth he felt around her at night when she let go of her powers and let them linger in the room kept growing stronger and stronger.

It was gentle. It was kind. It was unyielding against the darkness. It was like how the Pharaoh felt before the Puzzle was sealed with the rest, as his powers grew that warmth began to fade very rapidly.

It felt...nice. Good in a way he hadn't felt since before his village was annihilated for the Items.

Feeling her hit _just_ the right spot, Bakura started purring, before he stopped. Usagi rubbed his ears a little more, and the urge became too overwhelming for him to fight. He became a puddle of goo in her arms.

She grinned with triumph. To add to the positive reinforcement, Usagi began to gently hum something she caught Mogget singing every once in a while when he was in a very good mood.

Bakura stiffened in her arms in shock.

" _Where did you hear that song?"_ he demanded, looking at her in shock and anger.

"Mogget. He said his mother used to sing it to him before the pharaoh's guards destroyed his village to make the Items. He helped correct my pronunciation, though I prefer humming," she replied. "You are not entirely evil, Bakura. You just didn't have a chance to properly grieve over your family."

" _What do you know? You have no idea what suffering is!"_ snarled Bakura.

Usagi gave him a Look. It was quite terrifying.

"The pharaoh's guards caught you during dinner. Your mother managed to hide you in a small hidey hole that the possessed men didn't bother to check, and you saw their bodies melt into gold before being poured into the special stone that formed the Millennium Items. You heard their dying screams as it happened. You couldn't even move for fear that the guards would see you and you would suffer the same fate. You hate the Pharaoh's son because he and his court use the Items without knowing _how_ they were made or the sacrifice of your village...treating them as mere trinkets they can use to wield their power," she stated flatly.

Bakura completely froze. Not a single muscle moved, his eyes wide with open shock.

" _How could you possibly know that?"_

"Because I saw what happened to the other half of your soul. The part that was taken and held hostage to use as collateral when the half that was sealed in the Ring was forced to endure watching it happen over and over again until the Items were unsealed. To insure that he never forgot what happened to the village or the people in it. How did you think a mere _cat_ was able to match your ability to use shadow magic so easily and without a second thought?" she asked, eyebrows raised.

Bakura was in shock.

" _That cat... is the other half of my soul? The part I thought was lost during the sealing?"_ he asked quietly.

"I gave him a few simple rules to follow and I let him do what he likes when he isn't with me. I don't care if you attack or maul the Pharaoh when he's in control of Yugi's body, but you are not allowed to harm Yugi. He's just a reincarnation and had no idea of what happened all those years ago until I told him. He's an innocent, as is Ryou. If you must indulge in theft, it had better not be traced back to me, ever. And no picking fights in the office. I hate having to clean up after them," said Usagi.

" _...You would actually let me attack the Pharaoh."_

"You can't kill or permanently maim him, but otherwise I'll turn a blind eye. Your hatred and anger towards him is perfectly legitimate from what I saw, and his ignorance is not a proper excuse considering he didn't even do a good job of learning how to use his powers without the crutch of the Puzzle. You at least put in the hard work... he just used it as a conduit and didn't bother to do proper research on top of relying on the God's Blessing to keep him safe."

Bakura stared at her in disbelief.

She stroked his fur as she continued.

"I don't expect you to suddenly change several thousand year's worth of hatred or your desire for vengeance. As far as I'm concerned, it would be better for all involved if the souls in the Items were firmly put to rest once and for all. All I'm asking is for you to temper your darkness and not involve innocents who don't deserve it... like that stunt you pulled with Monster World when you sealed Yugi and his friends into those figurines. Common criminals are on their own," said Usagi.

Bakura...honestly had no idea how to handle this situation. The myriad of thoughts racing through his head were overwhelming.

She wasn't demanding he give up his hatred or desire for revenge against the pharaoh. She didn't expect him to suddenly quit using his thieving skills or attacking idiots who were practically begging for it. She accepted the fact he had a legitimate reason to hate the Pharaoh and his ilk, and even condoned the idea of allowing him to attack the pharaoh.

(Even if she forbid him from doing the same to his much meeker half. Annoying, but he could work with it.)

Without even realizing it, he curled closer into the warmth she was giving off. The feeling pure acceptance and that maybe, he had something to return to. Something that had been ripped from him by the royal family. A home where he was wanted, welcomed even.

Usagi started humming the old lullaby his mother used to sing, which allowed him to drift off into a dream of better times. Times before the massacre.

As his "nicer" half had found out the hard way, there was really no way to win against the pure Harmony and acceptance that came off Usagi like a cloak. If she liked you enough that she openly accepted you, then it was practically a given you would end up caught.

Just look at what happened to Fon!

* * *

 _Later that night..._

Mukuro took one look at the way the cat was tentatively curled up on the bed next to a sleeping Usagi, and smirked.

The cat had lasted a lot longer than he gave him credit for, he'd give him that much. But Usagi was a living, breathing entity of pure harmony. If she genuinely felt that someone who had committed multiple wrongs could be saved and redeemed, then it was inevitable that they would fall under her influence.

It had happened to him. It had happened to Mogget. And now Bakura was just another example of how Usagi had the ability to change people.

By the third day Usagi was sadly used to the new outfit. At least the hormonal guys backed off when she said she already had a boyfriend.

Kyouya was a happy dragon, because he got to intimidate the idiots who attempted to hit on Usagi. Even if he had to wear the ridiculous outfit of a violet Asian-themed dragon magician. The reason it annoyed him was because it looked a little _too_ reminiscent of Fon's uniform to be a complete coincidence.

Regardless of how annoyed Mokuba was over the whole attempted kidnapping Pegasus tried to pull, he didn't let it get in the way of his own private amusement against Usagi, his brother or Kyouya.

Pegasus was absolutely _delighted_ to have a co-conspirator when it came to making a few extras in the next expansion pack. He could handle the art work and production, but the effects were all on Mokuba.

And he wasn't just focusing on his brother, Usagi or Kyouya. Oh no. He was getting _all_ of the little group that Usagi was gathering around her into it, including Fuuta and himself! Not even Fon or I-Pin were spared, though when Fon caught him in a video chat with Pegasus he opted to get into it...by adding a photo of what he looked like before he was cursed. Coincidentally that photo also included the other Arcobaleno, and Fon was too amused _not_ to share a few things about them so that they suddenly found their real forms being used as monster cards.

Viper was going to be so peeved, though considering Skull was a duelist himself, he'd probably love it.

(When the expansion came out, Skull more than loved it...he immediately integrated his own 'monster' into his deck and it became his new favorite... Pegasus sent him a copy personally, to his delight.)

* * *

It was with some shock that she found one of the "god cards" Kaiba had told everyone to keep an eye out for...and it was going against the Pharaoh!

Bakura looked all too ready to attack on sight. Sadly Usagi held him back before he could complete the launch off her shoulder.

" _Let me go woman!"_ he snarled.

"Wait until after the duel, then maul him. Once it ends the live feeds cut off and people won't be after my head to put down my 'vicious cat' because they saw you attacking him on the website."

Bakura blinked, before an evil smirk came on his face.

" _Fair enough."_

He had been patient for a few thousand years. He could wait a few minutes for a simple duel to end. It was about over anyway.

The second Kyouya confirmed the feed had ended, Bakura's eyes gleamed.

" _BANZAI!"_

"ARGH! GET THIS DAMN CAT OFF ME!" shouted the Pharaoh.

The possessed human openly stared. Bakura was having a ball clawing the hell out of the Pharaoh, before Usagi felt the usual shift that said Yugi was about to take control. She snatched the irate feline off his face with practiced ease, avoiding his claws and fangs.

Yugi did not look like a happy camper.

"Usagi, why was Mogget more vicious than usual?" he whined, wincing as he felt the scratches. Those claws hurt like hell! And they sank in deeper than normal!

"Because this is Bakura, the spirit of the Ring, not Ba-Ku-Ra, the one that normally attacks you," she said simply. "And cheer up! I have a Sun that needs practical experience in relatively minor injuries that will probably help out if you ask! Or we could find a way to make Anzu active..."

Yugi flinched.

"I'd rather deal with yours. You know how she feels about Mogget," said Yugi.

Usagi snickered. Anzu was nice, but her rants were murder on the ears. She was one of those "love conquers all", except the love bit was replaced with friendship.

Not that Usagi didn't _disagree_ with that notion...it was just that she'd rather stack the odds firmly in HER favor before she did something as reckless as relying purely on the skill set and strength of her friends. That was asking for a disaster to happen in very short order.

"So... what card did you just win?"

"Slifer, the Sky Dragon."

"...You do realize the second my boss finds out you have that he is going to be on you the first chance he gets."

"I _know_. It's bad enough that the one responsible for the influx of Ghouls in the city is pretty much targeting _me_ every chance he gets! I just know that most of my Battle City duels will be against the Rare Hunters!" complained Yugi.

Usagi patted his shoulder with sympathy. Poor Yugi, being a dark Sky who was pretty much destined to duel a bunch of lunatics, psychos and all out nut jobs instead of nice, sane people who just happened to love dueling. All of which were going to be after him because of that stupid Puzzle.

"Look at the bright side," said Usagi.

"There's a bright side?" said Yugi, hopeful.

"You have a sympathetic shoulder to complain to and a place to crash when you want to get very, very drunk and not have to hear your grandpa or mother after your case for underage drinking when things get really bad?" she said amused.

"...Thank the gods you were hired by Kaiba. I don't think I could deal with all this nonsense sober all the time," said Yugi, with anime tears falling down his face. Usagi patted his head.

Poor Yugi.

"Oh, before I forget did Ryou happen to pass along that bit of advice I gave him?"

"I haven't seen Ryou or Mogget since we ran into Mogget by accident just after the tournament started."

"You know how you like to 'talk' to the Pharaoh out loud?"

"Yeah?"

"Get a Bluetooth or a cell phone. That way you can fake that you're on a conversation with someone on the other end and people won't look at you like you need to be in a mental asylum. Talking to the thin air isn't exactly _normal_ you know,' she said dryly.

Yugi winced. That would explain so much the weird looks he kept getting.

"I can't afford a cell phone."

"That explains why you never call me or my Guardians for help when you're in a mess, again. You _or_ Jounouchi," said Usagi exasperated. "I'll talk to your grandfather about getting you a prepaid plan or something, but for now get your card. I'll help you get a decent cell phone and a Bluetooth. Relying on the tracking device in the duel disks to get you out of trouble is ridiculous, since you can't directly contact the switchboard."

"Thanks Usagi-nee," said Yugi with relief.


	21. Chapter 21

**Just a head's up: My new profile pic is what Usagi looks like in her Dark Magician Bunny Girl outfit, minus the tail and the ears. The outfit has more orange in it, but that's the basic look.**

* * *

Yugi was now the proud owner of the special Bluetooth that Usagi had herself...though it wasn't in one of the "special headbands" that Usagi ended up an accidental promoter of.

Kaiba was beyond amused that the sale for those skyrocketed the second people found out they were in fact available for sale on the same website that was promoting the Battle City tournament. Girls were going completely nuts over her costume and were more than eager to get their own set. Of course they didn't have nearly as many features as the ones Usagi always had on, but they did at least have the headphones and Bluetooth capabilities for those willing to pay for it. There were even copies of Kyouya's outfit, which were almost popular.

At least now he could talk to the Pharaoh without looking like he was talking to himself. The special earrings, which covered his ear were small enough to hide behind his hair, but strong enough to handle damn near anything that the shadow magic threw at it. They also looked good, fitting his current style rather well.

Usagi promptly put her phone number, the number of all her Guardians (save for Kaiba), Mokuba and Fon into Yugi's phone.

"When you find Jonouchi, tell him he's responsible for paying the prepaid plan. That phone has a hundred minutes on it and is highly damage resistant, so there's no excuse for him being out of contact," said Usagi.

"Thanks Usagi-nee. I can't believe it never occurred to us to just get cell phones so we could stay in contact," said Yugi sheepishly.

"Good thing your big sister is well liked in a company that produces them and the accessories, right?" she winked. "Just remember if you break this one you'll have to pay for a new one on your own."

"I know," said Yugi. It even had a Dark Magician cover on the back, and it was in his favorite color. Jounouchi's phone had a Red Eyes Black Dragon on it.

She ruffled his spiked hair.

"Have fun, and if the Rare Hunters keep giving you trouble let me know. They don't even belong in this tournament to begin with."

"So Usagi-nee...any idea what sort of powers Sky Bunny Magician Girl should have?" asked Mokuba with a grin.

"I thought the card was a joke?"

"Nope. There's going to be a _full_ set, including your Guardians, Fuuta, even Fon's in on it! Though he gets put in a different set for the Arcobaleno," said Mokuba grinning.

There was the sound of someone skidding to a stop.

"Hold the phone! You mean to say there's going to be an Arcobaleno set of monsters to play in the next expansion?!" said Skull excitedly.

"Who are you?"

"Mokuba, meet the Cloud Arcobaleno Skull... he's also a participant in the tournament. Skull, meet Kaiba's little brother and one of the many neutrals who settle disputes about the ante rule."

"Did I hear that right? Pegasus is going to make cards based off us?" said Skull excitedly.

"Original and Arcobaleno form," said Mokuba with a grin. "I heard Aneki said something about inviting you to crash in the break room between duels so you could spend time with Fon?"

"Aneki?" said Skull.

"She's dating two Clouds, one of which is my brother," explained Mokuba.

"Oh, so you're the Rain kid she mentioned. So tell me more about these cards," said Skull eagerly.

Mokuba grinned.

Usagi snorted.

"As for the "Sky Magician Bunny Girl"... how about a magical light attack of orange fire called 'Harmony Blast'? And a special effect where you have to fulfill certain conditions that allow you to take over enemy monsters to your side as long as she's on the field?"

"I like it!" said Mokuba, writing that down.

"Don't forget the power-ups!" added Skull with enthusiasm. "Any real magical girl has to have power ups! You already have the magical familiar and side kick, right?"

"A rabbit that's being trained by Fon in martial arts and a cat that has a weird split personality going on," said Mokuba cheerfully.

"...Why would Fon train a _rabbit_ in martial arts?"

"Long story short, he finds the fact that Angel has a rivalry with his nephew hilarious. Especially since Angel is also a master of Bunny-Fu," said Usagi with a straight face.

"That...is absurd and absolutely hilarious. I have to see this!" said Skull grinning.

"Speaking of power-ups... How about this for the next costume during the finals?"

Skull looked at it and frowned.

"It covers too much. No one would accept it," said Skull immediately. "If you shorten the skirt and allow more of the bust to show then it might be good. You have to remember, most magical girl outfits tend to stay skimpy, unless they go princess mode or something."

Usagi scowled.

"But it's going to be _freezing_ during the finals!" she complained.

"What?"

"Usagi is one of the few who _knows_ where the finals are going to be. Since we're not active participants, but neutral judges who settle disputes about the antes, we're allowed to know."

"Got it. How do you know it's going to be freezing? It's fairly warm at the moment."

"High winds. It's going to be a nightmare keeping my hat and ears on," said Usagi without hesitation. That could mean any number of things.

"Well if that's the problem, then just use your Flames. Most high-level flame users don't really feel temperature differences once they reach a certain point."

"...I haven't even bothered to train mine," said Usagi.

"Ask Fon for help in learning how to turn yours to useful, it should cut down on most of the temperature difference," said Skull seriously.

"Mind helping me alter this stupid costume? If it covered a bit more then I wouldn't mind it as much."

"Add a few more frills or ribbons. That usually works really well," advised Skull. "And you can never go wrong with color, so long it doesn't clash with the primary. I think your best bet would be golds, reds or maybe some pastel colors."

Usagi adjusted the costume on the screen, adding a few things and removing others. She even adjusted the hat, though now the ears went _through_ the opening in the hat, rather than awkwardly sat on either side of it. She brightened, and then opened up a second file.

"What's that?" asked Mokuba, looking over her shoulder.

"Princess or Queen Mode," she replied. "Typical stereotype of magical girl genre is that they inherit a princess or queen archtype."

Skull nodded in agreement.

"You're a Sky, right? Might be easier to stick to the Princess genre. Most Skies are usually considered a 'prince' or 'princess', especially if they're well loved by their familigia."

"That gives me a great idea!" said Usagi enthusiastically. She adjusted the coloring for twin outfits, one in a darker color scheme while the other stayed bright and happy.

"Nice! What's the dark one?" asked Skull appreciatively.

"Midnight Princess Sky Bunny. The other is Dawn Princess Sky Bunny. The first one is based off a mafia theme, where she uses guns and knives and uses a darker orange magical blast... I'm going to call it Dark Sky Blast for the mafia one. The other is the vigilante route... she uses an upgraded version of Harmony Blast which I'm going to call Rainbow Blast, because it uses all the seven colors of the Sky."

"What should we call your upgraded costume?"

"Harmony Bunny Magician Girl," said Usagi without thinking too hard about it.

Mokuba grinned, added a few things to the costume like some upgraded gloves and ditched the girly looking staff. He also added Mogget and Angel by her side, though Angel was mostly popping out of her hat. Mogget was curling around her in a dark smoke that curled around her legs with vicious red eyes and claws already out.

"How about instead of a magical blast from the staff, she learns how to use her hands instead? And her bigger attacks combine her guardian spirit at her side, creating a sort of yin-yang attack?"

"Dark Harmony Blast if she uses the cat, and X-Burner for the basic attack," said Usagi, nodding. "Allows duelists to chose which version of her Princess mode to work with."

Skull was grinning. This was silly, but so much fun.

Mokuba was typing something under the pictures, before hitting send.

"Mokuba, what did you just do?" asked Usagi.

"Sent it to Pegasus. Remember, he was planning to make a copy of your 'Magical Bunny Girl' as a joke for the next expansion? Maybe he'd have some suggestions."

Pegasus did have a few suggestions, altering the magical outfit so that it _looked_ a little different, but the overall effect stayed the same. He also asked about her "magical familiar", since the picture didn't showcase Angel very well in her upgraded costume.

Mokuba sent a picture of Angel along with the fact he was a master of Bunny-Fu...mostly by sending video of the rabbit sparring with I-Pin, Fon and Kyouya. Somehow he had the feeling Angel would end up a 'magical familiar' to the magician class of monsters.

It would be hilarious to see Yugi pairing it up with his Dark Magician.

"So... see Fon about making my Flames useful?" said Usagi.

"And getting that costume started," said Mokuba. "Don't you have a tournament to be in?"

"Nah. I lost a couple of hours ago to a kid with white hair and a weird scar on his face. He was rather polite about it at least, even if he did give me a weird vibe."

"..."

Usagi and Mokuba shared a look as Usagi scrolled through her phone for the right picture.

"This him?" she asked, showing a picture of Ba-Ku-Ra on the rare times he took human form.

"Yeah. Lost all my puzzle cards to him and was only one away from a sixth. I'm just glad for a chance to rest," said Skull cheerfully.

"Well at least he didn't drag you into a shadow game. Though considering Fon's reaction (his pacifier anyway) to the shadow realm it might not have worked anyway. Want to join me in heading to the main office while I get the new costume ready for the finals?"

"Sure!" said Skull cheerfully. He sat on her right shoulder, since Mogget had taken the left one. The fact she didn't even pause in her stride said she was far too used to someone or something riding on her shoulders like this.

* * *

 _In the Kaiba Corp Labs..._

"Hey Fon!" said Skull, waving.

"Skull. I heard you were in the tournament."

"Yeah, it was a total blast. Especially after Usagi-chan swapped out my disk," said Skull. He looked a lot happier and more relaxed than Fon was used to seeing.

"By the way Fon, can you help me turn my Flames into Useful? Skull said they'd help me with the finals since this outfit isn't exactly meant to keep people warm," said Usagi.

"I was wondering when you'd finally ask that," said Fon smiling. "And he's right in that it would keep you warm on that airship."

"Airship?" said Skull.

"The finals are taking place on a blimp that turns into a private plane. I might be able to talk Seto out of a lot of things, but this seemed like a good way to really make things go off with a bang," said Usagi.

"I almost forgot... apparently your Magical Bunny Girl persona is so popular that Kaiba has been seriously considering making it a secondary mascot of Kaiba Corp... or at least it's friendlier aspects."

"Oh dear lord..." said Usagi face-palming. "It's bad enough he has that holographic display of a Blue Eyes roaring in Kaiba Land!"

Odds were that Kaiba would make her a tour guide or something to greet the visitors. One that he could use to 'encourage' guests to visit attractions to see the 'guide' upgrade to the other models.

"We might as well get started," said Fon cheerfully.

* * *

 _With Pegasus..._

Even after the loss of the Millennium Eye, he was having a grand time. Who knew that Kaiba's little brother was such a delightful little trickster? The kitsune based monster was sure to be a hit.

The question was, how was he going to 'upgrade' the "Sky Bunny Magician Girl" to her "Princess mode"? He had an idea of how to upgrade her to "Harmony Bunny Magician Girl" using the "Dark Guardian's Aide", which would look very much like her cat Mogget and upgrade any magician-type monster. But it got it's greatest boost if used with Usagi's card...the same went for the "Magician's Familiar" which would look like Angel and even be an actual monster that could amplify one magician-type monster on the field.

Watching the live feeds and feeling the shiver of horror when he saw Slifer being used openly, an idea occurred to him.

He would have to ask Mokuba for clarification on what the darker variant was based on, but for the "Dawn Princess" he could simply add "Blessings of the Divine Sky" to upgrade the Sky Bunny Magician Girl.

Pegasus snickered. He wasn't the only one having a lot of fun making new cards for the expansion pack. Perhaps he should hold a contest to aspiring artists and duelists to make new cards and possibly hire a few for his art and development department?


	22. Chapter 22

"...I don't know whether to be pleased or terrified that she managed to learn how to do that so fast," said Fon.

"I vote terrified...if I was on the wrong end of it," said Skull.

Usagi's X-Burner (using the Vongola Sky Ring as a conduit) was _terrifying_. That much raw Sky Flame being channeled through her hands into a "magical blast" was scary as hell. And powerful.

And that was _before_ the strange boost Mogget got when she unleashed it came into play.

Bakura had been _very_ startled when he felt his body shift into a more dark ethereal form as he instinctively attacked the targets set up for Usagi to test her own attack on. It was like he was liquid shadow.

The fact he could _literally_ feel the pull of shadow magic and the fact her "Sky Flames" were amplifying what he had available was what threw him the most though.

He couldn't figure out why HE was the one attacking with shadow magic, and not her.

With a sudden "Pop!", he found himself in human form.

" _What..."_

"Looks like you've earned your human form back, at least temporarily," noted Usagi.

" _Temporarily?"_ he said confused.

"Well, you are technically on parole... and I'm acting as your parole officer/anchor to this world," shrugged Usagi.

" _So the pull of shadow magic I felt when you attacked?"_

"Usagi cannot use Shadow Magic. At all."

" _Bullshit!"_ said Bakura, not believing it for a second. Why would his "better" half leave his master so vulnerable?

 _'And why am I considering her as master in the first place? She is weak...'_ thought Bakura almost immediately after that hit him.

"Let me rephrase that," said Fon slowly. "Usagi _should_ not use Shadow Magic. I'm sure you've felt that warmth in your soul which drives away the darkness."

" _What of it?"_

"Your other half accidentally found a group of 'shadow mages' that managed to learn how to use them without the crutch of the Items. In fact they were _very_ startled to find out that he knew more about the magic than they did," said Fon. "From what we've been able to ascertain, the Shadow Magic, which they called Flames of Night, act as a sort of spiritual glue for those who's soul has been corrupted, distorted or damaged in some way. Usagi's Sky Flames are an untainted and purer form of magic...one that is not damaged like shadow magic is. If she ever acquires the ability to use Shadow Magic, it would mean her soul has been irreparably broken."

Bakura stared. He didn't believe that for a second.

"Take me to the Shadow Realm without trying to trap me there. You'll see for yourself why the gods gave Ba-Ku-Ra a second chance so long as he acted as my spirit guardian with how often I keep encountering Shadow Mages," said Usagi.

Bakura blinked, before he managed to make a shadow portal. It had been so long he almost forgot how to do it without activating the shadow games.

One blast of her X-Burner on low against a random monster...and Bakura understood.

These...Flames... were like the opposite of shadow magic. They were pure...untainted...almost like the complete antithesis of shadow magic. So in order to keep her from ever needing to _learn_ how to use it (and thus tainting her soul's purity) the gods gave her a protector. A shield and a sword against those who would try and use shadow magic against her directly.

Usagi hugged him without hesitation.

"You are not a monster. You're someone who's been hurting for far too long and no one ever bothered to get your side of the story," she said.

What was this warmth in his chest? It was almost like he felt happy, which was odd because he hadn't felt like this since his family was killed in front of him.

He didn't know why, but he reluctantly hugged her back. That warmth sprang into a conflagration of heat and light that poured into his soul, filling the cracks that the shadows could not reach.

When they returned, he was promptly turned back into a cat...but he was considerably less grumpy compared to how he acted before Usagi worked her 'magic' on him.

"If any of you peek I will use my X-Burners on you! I mean it!" said Usagi sternly. She was doing a costume fitting for the upcoming finals. It would be surprising if Battle City lasted longer than a week, which was why the costume was done so quickly.

Usagi stepped out in a slightly less provocative and embarrassing outfit. Sure it was girly, but then again she wore bunny ears regularly and despite her job was a bit of a girly-girl at heart. So was Chrome for that matter. Which reminded her...

"Chrome, it's your turn!" she called out.

"Okay, Hime!" said Chrome nervously.

She came out in a rather cute magical girl outfit similar to the one Usagi had been wearing earlier...but it covered a lot more and had cutesy skulls as a belt.

"Mist Witch Nagi looks even better than the original one we drew up!" said Mokuba with approval.

Chrome blushed at the praise.

Mist Witch Nagi was the name her card self would be given, and could be used to compliment the Sky Bunny Magician Girl. There was also a Mist Sorcerer Rokudo that had Mukuro openly amused. When the two were summoned together they gave each other a 1,000 point attack and defense boost...which considering Mist Witch had an attack/defense of 1800/1500 and Mist Sorcerer was at 1900/1700, meant they could be even stronger than the Dark Magician or Dark Magician girl when they combined attacks.

Mokuba wasn't the only one who had far too much fun making up new cards and sending pictures to Pegasus as a joke. The fact he actually _liked_ them since it meant he wouldn't have to think too hard on the next expansion pack meant they were making his job easier.

He was planning to call it the Rainbow Soul expansion, since the ones that the duelists would want were the same new monsters, spells and traps that Mokuba and the others were creating out of boredom.

Fon and Skull couldn't wait to see the "WTF" expressions on the other Arcobaleno when they started seeing their real forms fighting in a card game of all things. Reborn and Viper's reactions alone would make it entirely worth it!

"You guys have way too much fun with this card game," said Shōichi Irie.

He had more or less ended up part as Kaiba's R and D department during one of the many, many visits to Namimori and Shōichi actually fainted upon seeing him before babbling far too much technical and science related stuff for Usagi to even remotely keep up with. The second Kaiba realized that his apparent fan (not because of duel monsters, but because he was a genius with technology) actually _did_ know what he was talking about, he gave him a temporary job.

A job that swiftly became permanent when Shōichi upgraded most of the tech that Kaiba had still in the development stages...like the duel disk system.

"Tell me about it. Add in the actual _magic_ that got tied in and I still don't see the appeal," said Usagi. "So, how's Spanner?"

"He said he's almost got enough to come to Domino...but he's having trouble getting away from his rather persistent employers," said Shōichi.

He wasn't going to tell her that Spanner was part of the Tomaso familigia's R and D, and they were not happy with the fact he had found a better offer.

"Uh-huh. What's the real reason?"

Shōichi slumped.

"The mafia family he's technically part of doesn't like the fact he found a better offer and refuse to let him buy out his contract."

"He's like you? Really smart and tech-oriented?" said Usagi.

"Yeah."

She sighed.

"When the tournament is over I'll go to where he is directly and negotiate a compromise."

Shōichi blinked.

"I thought Kaiba Corp was a simple game company."

"It is. I'm not going there as Kaiba's secretary... I'm going there as a Sky interested in expanding their own group who just happens to be affiliated with an even larger familigia," said Usagi tiredly. Seeing Shōichi's expression, she gave him a tired smile. "I'm sorta connected to the mafia via my ex-father."

"Actually if you wanted to get technical, she's the head of a small mafia familigia that split off from one of the biggest ones. The only reason Kaiba Corp isn't _directly_ considered a mafia familigia is because she hasn't really bothered to go out and make alliances. You could consider us an 'up and coming' familigia with a lot of potential influence when they go public. Be amusing to see the Vongola's reactions when they figure that out," said Fon with dark amusement.

* * *

It was Usagi and Chrome were walking around in their costumes (Chrome took a lot of courage knowing she was just supporting Usagi-nee in her hobby, which now firmly included cosplay) that they were accosted not by a duelist who needed a neutral party that needed someone to judge whether an ante was fair, one of the many Rare Hunters out trying to get an edge against the two with God Cards or just poaching rare cards, or a mafioso.

Instead they were confronted by a girl who had a rather unusual fixation on children and an avid love of cosplay who had finally found enough money to get a ticket to Domino on the train.

"Hahi! I have to ask, where did you get those costumes?" asked Miura Haru with an enthusiastic expression, eyes gleaming.

"My boss tricked me by rigging the coin toss and handed me the official announcer costume. Though the ears and tail are my normal daily wear," said Usagi.

"I know! You're the only person in those stuffy magazines who actually has a taste in interesting clothing! I have a set at home!" said Haru happily.

"...Sorano Usagi," she said, holding out her hand.

"Ah. Dokuro Chrome," said the Mist girl shyly.

"Hahi, I'm Miura Haru! Please tell me there's going to be others?" she asked hopefully.

Usagi grinned.

"I have the feeling we're going to be great friends..." she said with a smirk.

Haru not only _loved_ the next outfit, but she had ideas on the two "princess" varients.

With a few deft strokes, she adjusted the princess variants to something even more appealing while staying true to the theme. For one thing the hat was tilted slightly over the right eye on the "Mafia" version, while the "Vigilante" one was a bit sparkly and warm. She had a more confident look too.

"You have a real eye for this sort of thing!" said Usagi.

"I make all my own costumes!" said Haru proudly.

An evil gleam came onto her face.

"Um... hime?"

"Tell me Haru-chan... how often do you get some rather good looking models for your costumes?" asked Usagi, eyes sparkling.

Elsewhere, Kaiba, Kyouya, Hayato, Mukuro, Takeshi and even Yugi all had sudden premonitions of doom and humiliation go down their spines.

"Almost never," said Haru disappointed.

"Hime, you're not seriously considering..."

"They _owe_ me for shoving me into this costume and making it so revealing," said Usagi flatly. "I have a special punishment for my boyfriends planned, but they give me enough grief that they owe me."

"Boyfriends?" said Haru owlishly.

"My boss and my bodyguard are both my boyfriends. It helps that they've agreed to share within reason," shrugged Usagi.

She gaped.

"How does that even work?"

"Both of them have busy work schedules, thus it means that when one is busy, the other has a chance to go out on a date with me. Besides, it means Kaiba can use me as a shield from the sycophants and fan girls."

"What about..."

"They haven't gotten that far," said Chrome.

"Yet," said Usagi.

"What does the other one look like?" asked Haru, curious.

Usagi pulled out her phone and showed her a picture of both together with her.

Haru stared.

"No wonder you're so open to sharing! If I had to chose between these two I'd have just as hard a time!" she gushed.

"I know, right? Should have seen his face when he first realized that his 'rabbit-eared secretary' was the first one to last three months without quitting or being fired for annoying him!" laughed Usagi.

"Why rabbit though?"

"I was late for my interview and grabbed the first headband I could get my hands on... I didn't realize until I was right in front of my boss that I had grabbed one with rabbit ears. After that, he remembered me because of them and his brother clued me in that he didn't care what I wore so long as I did my job, so they became my lucky charm. Now they're as much a part of me as my glasses, even though I don't need them to see," said Usagi shrugging.

"Boss makes her new ears and tail especially for her. The tail has a mini-computer in it, her glasses let her read from her tablet without pulling it out, and the ears have a ton of options like a built in headphones, Bluetooth and auto-translator that go along with the glasses," said Chrome. "I have a pair too, except I wear cat ears instead...my computer is in the tail."

"That...is so cool!" said Haru enthusiastically.

"He even gave me options on the 'fur' color!" said Usagi.

"The white looks best on you," said Haru seriously. "Though the orange compliments your hair and eye color really well! Normally it just looks tacky, but you totally pull it off!"

"We should totally exchange numbers! If only so I know where to drag the boys in for their punishment," said Usagi grinning.

And that was how Haru ended up in Usagi's circle of friends... much to the horror of the guys.

On an unrelated note, when Haru activated her Flames Usagi no longer had to scramble to find a proper Lightning Guardian. Fon laughed himself to hiccups at the expression on his nephew's face when he realized there was no way they were getting rid of her now.


	23. Chapter 23

Usagi was just wandering around when she got a very panicked called from Yugi's new phone.

" _Usagi-nee... HELP!"_

She promptly dialed the office that was tracking all the other duelists (mostly so Kaiba could find the god card in their decks...other than confirming Yugi now had Slifer he was having no luck at all) and had them direct her to where Yugi was at.

What on earth was he doing so close to the docks in the first place?!

The second she saw what was going on, she twitched. Repeatedly.

"Someone mind explaining this?"

"Rare hunters caught Anzu and Jonouchi. Yugi's being forced to fight Jonouchi in order to keep a possessed Anzu from taking a deadly poison," said Otogi.

"Uh-Huh. And where is Honda?"

"Picking up Shizuka."

Yugi looked relieved to see her.

How was she supposed to get to Anzu without her accidentally taking the poison?

Usagi had a plan. It was a stupid, ridiculous one but if anyone asked she was going to firmly blame her overclocking the Kaiba Corp tech and demand a raise for this nonsense. On the plus side, no one was going to look too hard at a girl wearing a magical girl costume known to work with people who had been experimenting with holograms and next-gen technology.

If anyone asked how she did this, she would claim she was using a self-defense program based off the magical girl genre and got carried away.

"Yugi, I'm going to do something rather ridiculous and on par with the sort of nonsense that dead idiot in your puzzle pulls all the time. If I hear one comment about it later you will be the first victim of a friend I just made, instead of the two dragons," said Usagi twitching.

"...I'm going to regret this later, aren't I?" he asked.

"Almost certainly, but I'm throwing my boss under the bus if anyone asks questions. Chrome...make sure the live feed picks up nothing of what I'm about to do."

"Yes, Hime," said Chrome dutifully. She promptly covered the area in a Mist illusion, hiding Usagi from view of the cameras. It would pick up the dueling, but that was about it.

Once Usagi was sure it was up, she pulled off the ring from the necklace she kept it on and put it on her right hand before going into Dying Will Mode. With a little concentration she aimed her right hand at the anchor above the two boy's head.

With a five-second charge, she blasted the anchor in a way that if the machine fell, it wouldn't accidentally take one of the two duelists with them.

There was a massive **Splash!**as the anchor hit the water hard enough to get the trio a bit wet. The Rare Hunter stared at the girls wide eyed.

"Just so we're clear, I can do that with both hands. Do you really want to vex me further or do I have to give it a full charge?" she said irate.

"What the hell, bunny girl?!" swore Otogi.

Usagi calmly walked past the shell-shocked Rare Hunter (even the possessed Jonouchi was staring at her in disbelief) and swiped the pill from Anzu, since the one controlling her was in too much shock to stop her.

"..."

"You do realize that if you used a staff you would have..." started Yugi, but he shut up with an 'Eep!' at the look she gave him.

"Not. A. Word. Now finish this duel so we can get going," said Usagi annoyed. "At least you had the sense to call me first."

"They've been dueling for the past fifteen minutes," said Otogi.

"Really?" she said, raising an eyebrow at the sheepish Yugi.

"At least I remembered to ask for help?"

Usagi was less than pleased when Jonouchi came out of it only after his sister showed up. At least she got to meet Jonouchi's little sister Shizuka.

"So you both have your six cards? Good," said Usagi...as she got a call from the main switchboard. "It seems the tournament is winding down. Chrome, could you lead them to the check point or should I call a car to pick them up?"

"Ah. It might be best to call a car. If they were brash enough to kidnap Yugi's friends so openly..."

"Right. I have to return so I can switch out of this into the one I'll be wearing for the finals anyway and pick up Angel."

Yugi blinked.

"You're going to be wearing another outfit?"

"It's going to be _freezing_ during the finals and I got stuck announcing. Again. At least I get to wear a cloak..." she muttered.

Yugi shared a look with his friends.

"Mind if we make a brief stop so we can pick up our jackets?"

Usagi was already on her cell, texting to Mukuro and the others.

"I'll have Mukuro pick up the jackets for you. Go ahead with Chrome to the check point. The cars will be here in five... as for my ride..."

The loud noise of a helicopter was heard overhead. A ladder dropped down to where Usagi was.

"See you at the finals!" she said cheerfully, getting on the ladder and climbing up. It was with a great force of will that Yugi and the other guys _did not_ attempt to look up her skirt.

The limo came up, and like a gentleman Yugi let Chrome in first.

* * *

Yugi and the others stared at Usagi's new outfit. It wasn't _as_ revealing as the first one, which was heavily based off the Dark Magician Girl (save for the arrow-like part...that one looked more like a tie with a rather interesting pendant) with a different color scheme. But it was certainly eye-catching and very heavily themed off the magical girl genre without going overboard. Except she no longer had a staff, and instead had Mogget (he had switched back with Ba-Ku-Ra, to the disappointment of Ryou) on her shoulder and Angel sticking out of the hat.

It was certainly...interesting.

Yugi was the first to break the silence once Usagi gave the intro speech to the finals.

"I have to ask, what's your title now? Clearly you underwent the usual Magical Girl upgrade route."

He wasn't aware that the feed was still very much live, and that Mokuba was desperately trying not to laugh his ass off behind Usagi. So were a few others.

Usagi didn't even twitch.

"Call me Harmony Bunny Magician Girl~!"

"Of course," said Yugi with a straight face. Once he was sure her back was turned and the others were hiding his reaction, he snickered as quietly as he could.

"So Harmony... What's your magical attack?" asked Ryou with a straight face.

"Well unlike before, I no longer need a staff to use my magic. Now I have my spirit guardian Mogget to do the attack and defending for me, while Angel acts as my support unit!" said Usagi without missing a beat.

Mokuba wasn't the only one close to dying from holding in his laughter. So were Mukuro and the others, who knew damn well that she was saying this _on a live feed_.

Ryou desperately fought to keep a straight face. He soon gave up and joined Yugi in snickering on the side.

Usagi kept up her chipper attitude long enough for the drawings to be held...and when the five minute interlude came (to give the duelists enough time to take a break/use the restroom/reach the platforms above) she turned to the now howling lot behind her.

"What the hell was so funny anyway?"

"Aneki... we were still live until the drawing," said Mokuba.

She paled.

"What?"

"You just gave yourself a magical girl identity to the whole world on a live broadcast. I know for a fact Mama and the others were recording it to watch later," said Fuuta, cracking up.

"Oh gods..." said Usagi mortified.

"I thought it was pretty good!" said Yugi with a straight face.

She turned to him and he about died cracking up. Even _Fon_ was having trouble maintaining his usual "serene" smile after watching that. Skull didn't bother trying.

Then Kaiba gave them all the one thing that nearly killed them from laughing.

"The number of hits on the website for the next live feed just skyrocketed. If this keeps up we're going to have to make the 'Magical Usagi' persona act as our holographic greeter for the Kaiba Corp main office," said Kaiba with a smirk. "There's already hundreds of preorders for the costume."

"I hate you all so much. Why couldn't you have warned me we were still live?"

"Because then it wouldn't have been as funny," said Mokuba without hesitation.

She twitched, before an evil idea occurred to her.

"I wonder how Pegasus will feel if we do a promotional spot of the next expansion pack..."

She was already texting him about which cards he had ready...she was really hoping to show off the one featuring Fon and Reborn, along with her own card.

Reborn because according to Skull he was a bit of a jerk and it would tempt him into visiting. And Fon, because he was still snickering in the corner. Besides, she might get Dino to choke on something if he saw that commercial and she knew for a fact he would be watching it. He had sent her a few texts commenting on her outfit within the past five minutes.

Too bad they wouldn't be able to post them until the second half the finals. She would have to do a commercial spot to as "payment" for him giving her the 'card prototypes' which he had just finished making.

Thanks to the photos, they were able to make the "Arcobaleno" cards much faster since they weren't working from scratch. The same with the "Magical Bunny Girl" set.

He was going to make a killing with this expansion thanks to the popularity of Usagi.

* * *

Usagi twitched as she checked the list of all the _known_ duelists. Then she switched off the mike to talk to her boss/boyfriend in private.

"How exactly did _she_ get here? More importantly why did she give you that card if she was going to enter anyway?" she hissed. She did not like Isis.

"We really need to make a proper list of _acceptable_ duelists so we can keep people from getting to the finals out of the blue like this," said Kaiba crossly. Ryou was barely acceptable, Jonouchi was an annoyance, but the sheer number of Ghouls and other random people who got into the tournament was ridiculous.

He'd rather deal with Flames than this magic crap. At least there was something close to a science with them, even if it did mean having to deal with mafia and that nonsense!

Usagi waited until the break before the fake Marik went up to drag him and the 'real' one away from any cameras.

"Listen close you two. I don't care what your big game plan is with the dead idiot in Yugi's Puzzle. I don't care about these God Cards or whatever potentially legitimate reason you have to hate the Pharaoh enough to come up with this convoluted plan to kill him and by extension his reincarnated half. If I catch _either_ of you bringing out a shadow game I will make what I did to that anchor look like child's play and then make it look like you died as a tragic accident after the tournament. I have two illusionists more than happy to fake being either of you long enough until this damn tournament ends and I will not hesitate to end you if you annoy me too much. Am I _clear_?" said Usagi dangerously.

Marik blinked.

"Why should we be afraid of you, woman?" he sneered.

She promptly picked up Fon and held up a box made of solid steel. He helpfully disintegrated it with his Flames.

"That's just what _he_ can do without using his martial arts skills and I'm his boss. So you can imagine what will happen to your dead and broken corpses if you piss me off. He's also faster and immune to shadow magic thanks to that pacifier, so you're not going to get a decent hit in before he kills and discreetly disposes of the body. So let me reiterate. No shadow games. No sending people to the shadow realm. No giving me any headaches or attempting to kill Yugi or I will end you in as slow and painful a method as I can devise."

"I will destroy the Pharaoh," snarled Marik.

"I honestly do not care about the Puzzle or the dead idiot inside. If you can find a way to get rid of the damn Items and set the souls that are trapped in them free, be my guest. Bakura would thank you for it considering it was _his_ village that was destroyed and then melted to make those cursed things and he has a much longer standing grudge compared to whatever the pharaoh did to royally piss you off. But Yugi is off-limits. Is. That. Clear?" she said frostily.

"How are we supposed to tell if it's the Pharaoh or his present self?" asked Rashid flatly.

"That's easy. Yugi doesn't act like he owns the place and my cat knows better than to try and maul him. If he's not looking like he's ready to claw his eyes out just for existing, then you're dealing with Yugi. He has permission to attack on sight for the pharaoh," said Usagi without hesitation.

The two stared at each other.

She was right, that did make it easier to tell them apart.


	24. Chapter 24

"Shōichi, in three seconds I'm going to cut the live feed to a Mist Illusion,"said Usagi dead serious, through the special line that lead straight to where the genius red head was manning the feeds. "Mukuro, you're going to hide what _actually_ happens from the outside world by making it as realistic as possible. In other words you're going to cover what I'm about to do. Chrome, you hide from those not already in the know."

"Got it, Hime/Principessa," said the two Mists.

As Malik (Marik's more psychotic and arguably insane other half) summoned Ra to demolish Mai simply because he _could_ and damn what the rather terrifying Usagi had to say about it, Usagi tensed.

"Go."

Within the blink of an eye a subtle Mist illusion took over all the cameras, allowing the viewer to see the duel, but not the rest. Chrome kept the normals who hadn't already been exposed to shadow magic or Flames from seeing Usagi light up in orange fire.

"Mogget!"

She dashed onto the stage in front of the blast. Mogget created a shield of shadow magic, while her fire augmented it and powered him up even further.

Mai gaped from where she was trapped in disbelief.

Apparently the fragment of Ra that was in the card seemed to sense something, because the blast got even stronger. He didn't seem happy.

"Kyu!"

Angel's eyes glowed the same bright orange as Usagi's fire as feathers filled the air and actual honest-to-god wings appeared on Usagi's back. They almost looked way too much like phoenix wings, considering they were blazing with a fire that didn't burn.

Mokuba kept the presence of mind to take pictures at least, so he could share this with Pegasus for the "Magician's Familiar" card.

For five very long, agonizing seconds there was a standstill... and then Slifer got involved from within Yugi's deck. There was a shadow of the Sky Dragon behind Usagi and the blast cut off. There was an Ouroboros shaped necklace that glowed around her neck in the shape of the Sky Dragon...but it faded once the duel ended and the holograms cut off.

Malik stared at Usagi in a pissed off way. He wanted to blast Mai into the Shadow Realm for daring to appear before him. He wanted the world to burn.

Usagi glared right back.

"I believe I said no Shadow Games during the finals," she said rather icily. "And what in blazes possessed you to use the GOD CARD on her of all people!?"

"Hey!" said Mai, shaking off the shock that the harmless eye candy Kaiba had tricked into acting as the announcer for his tournament was an honest-to-god magical girl with odd tastes in headbands.

She had seen those ears come off. They weren't magically grafted onto her head like everyone thought. That and the 'fur' color changed occasionally was a big clue.

"Quiet. I'm already going to have to do damage control now that you're aware of magic and everything else and I don't feel like having them tamper with your memories," said Usagi flatly. "In any case, everyone off the platform save for those involved in the next duel! I'd like to avoid as many conspiracy theories on the site if possible!"

Malik gave her a dirty look, Mai was shakily helped off the platform by Jonouchi and Honda (and discreetly removed in case Malik tried a second time to banish her to the shadow realm by Anzu) and the next duel started.

"...You do realize you're never getting rid of the magical girl outfits now, right?" said Kaiba amused.

"Only if I get to help design the costumes and power-ups," said Usagi without missing a beat. "Anything too revealing only gets seen by you and Kyouya. Besides, I have something special planned to get you two back for getting me into the first one."

It took a few seconds for Kaiba to process that comment, but the widening of his eyes was worth it.

There was something very close to anticipation and eagerness in his eyes. It was also blatantly clear that he now wanted to hurry up and end the tournament, regardless of the outcome, for what she was hinting at.

And people said he was asexual, gay, or only cared about Duel Monsters. Ha!

Usagi was incredibly smug for most of the duel. Especially with the odd looks Isis kept shooting _her_ boyfriend.

* * *

 _Some time later..._

"Usagi-nee, what exactly did you tell Kaiba that made him so vicious and end that duel so fast?" asked Yugi baffled.

She giggled.

"I merely gave him some very...strong...motivation to end this tournament without all the grandstanding."

Mai was the first one to get it. She started cracking up at the confusion of Yugi and the others.

"I don't get it," said Anzu.

"The fact you don't is mostly because you don't have a boyfriend either and are still a virgin," said Mai with a straight face.

Anzu ran that through her head, before she got it.

"Oh. OH."

"What?" said Honda.

Shizuka was snickering too.

"Should we clue them in or wait for them to get it?" asked Shizuka to Mai.

"More fun to watch them flounder, then blush when they finally get what she told him to motivate him," said Mai laughing.

"And to think, I'm going to have twice as much fun because I have two boyfriends who don't mind sharing me."

"The bodyguard with the biting fetish?" asked Mai, eagerly.

"They're like two dragons that found a princess that they both want. But rather than fight over it and get me upset, they opted to share instead."

"How did you pull that off?" asked Mai, slipping into girl talk mode.

The guys promptly began to edge away. They instinctively knew dangerous territory when they saw or heard it.

"Scheduling, mostly. Kaiba is very busy and he runs an entire corporation that needs to stay on the cutting edge of the gaming and more recently the cosplay/anime industry. Ergo he rarely has a lot of time for himself and when he does he's usually dead tired. No girl my age would be able to handle that sort of stress and time management...which is where Kyouya comes in handy."

Mai was nodding to herself.

"He keeps you from feeling completely undesired because your other boyfriend is busy and it gives him even more incentive to stick around and act as bodyguard. The fact he's natural eye candy and very strong is a major bonus."

"The fact their 'territory' doesn't clash helps a lot. He has no interest in Kaiba's business, and Kaiba could care less about his hobbies so long as he does his job," said Usagi.

"Territory?" said Shizuka.

"Like I said, they're dragons. What do dragons do when they're old enough to handle outsiders like knights and other humans?"

"Ah."

"Kyouya rules over the mountains and deals with the small fry below... while Kaiba deals with the heavens and those who have a lot of power and connections through money and political influence."

"And you?" asked Mai fascinated.

"I'm the bunny princess who rules the sky and keeps the peace between heaven and earth," she said flatly, with open amusement. "It's easier for all involved to make a compromise than actually fight over me, since they don't like making me upset."

"This would either make a hit anime that would span several seasons, or a disaster in the making."

"I know. Why do you think I'm almost finished writing up a fantasy-style book about it?" said Usagi amused.

"...I so want a copy if that's the case," said Mai with amusement. Anzu and Shizuka nodded in total agreement.

"I could use some proofreaders if you're interested. It just needs a proper ending and some touch-ups before I see if Kaiba will help me get it published."

"So how exactly are you going to handle those two?" asked Mai, interested.

Usagi's grin was pure mischief and evil.

"Did you know those two have some very...interesting...reactions when I put my foot down and make them listen to me?"

Mai blinked, ran that through her head before she started cracking up. Meanwhile Shizuka blushed, hard.

"I really should have seen that one coming. I really should have," said Mai laughing her ass off.

"They're going to get it for shoving me in that skimpy magical girl costume~!" said Usagi. "I hate being leered at by hormonal morons who wouldn't know a real woman if it slapped them in the face."

"Here, here!" said Mai. And here she thought Kaiba's little bunny girl was going to be boring.

"You know, my mother would probably _love_ it if I had a proper adult female role model to talk to...and share things with..." mused Usagi.

"Will I be dragged into more magic crap like what that asshole nearly put me through?"

"Stick closer to my group and you automatically get a few shields from it. We don't drag you in unless someone from the outside has a death wish and Chrome could really use some female advice that doesn't come from someone who barely knows more than she does about being an adult. You're quite literally the only person who is now in the know that is both female and under thirty."

Mai preened...even if she was rather pleased Usagi fudged her age just a little.

It was a sad truth that even if one _wanted_ to be a professional duelist, the general age range was over nine (at best) and under thirty. If you told people you were a pro and looked even remotely close to forty you tended to get looks.

And not the good kind either.

It was just as bad being a woman duelist over twenty.

So yeah...Mai would happily latch onto Usagi and her group rather than the "Friendship Squad" as she had begun to privately call them in her head. Close proximity to a bitchy dragon, she was more likely to find opportunity to make something of herself as something other than the Harpy Queen.

A nickname that had multiple uses, to her annoyance.

* * *

 _In Italy..._

"Usagi said there's going to be something interesting in the TV spot during the second half of the tournament," said Dino, reading the text.

"Interesting how?"

Dino looked it over, before reading "Fon helped to make it."

Reborn was bored and curious enough to watch the TV promotion for the next expansion pack. He would deny it for days and would threaten Dino under pain of death never to reveal what happened, but he did an actual spit-take seeing one of the "new cards" that would come out a few months after the tournament.

" _What the hell?!"_

Because there, on the coffee-covered screen, was a picture of his _real form_ as a hit man, complete with Leon on his hat...as a monster card. Hell, there was one of Fon and Viper!

He was already getting a call from said Mist, who was just as shocked and confused as he was.

" _Are you seeing this?!"_ said Viper irate.

"I'm looking at _myself_ right now on TV! They're even calling it the 'Arcobaleno' set!" said Reborn.

" _Who the hell gave that picture to that damn idiot?"_ demanded Viper.

"According to Dino, Fon helped. I have a good idea who put him up to it as well," said Reborn.

If Usagi wasn't in on this (and considering that some of the "new cards" also featured her in that ridiculous magical girl outfit, he doubted she wasn't in on it) then he'd eat his fedora.

" _...I am going to strangle that bastard with that damn braid of his for this. I'm not even getting paid for using my image!"_

And there was the main reason Viper was pissed. They weren't getting paid for their image.

They would quickly change their tune when they got their cut of the card sells...specifically all those who "special ordered" the "Viper" and "Mist Arcobaleno" cards. Fon had been very specific about the miser's attitude and how they would react to their cards.

Reborn called Fon.

" _Hello Reborn. I take it you saw the promo for the expansion?"_

Reborn could openly hear Skull laughing his ass off in the background.

"Fon. What the hell?"

He _knew_ Fon was entirely too smug about this.

" _If you thought that was shocking you should have seen the security feeds when Hime finally went into Dying Will mode. That rabbit of hers is something else,"_ said Fon openly amused.

" _Hell yeah it was! Never thought I'd get to see an actual magical girl in action!"_ said Skull enthusiastically.

"...So the rabbit girl is finally bothering to learn how to use Flames. May I ask why?"

" _If and when the Vongola get off their ass to try and figure out who the rings are bonded to, we want to be prepared for any surprises they might try to throw at us. Especially the Ninth, considering he's gone positively_ senile _of late,"_ said Fon flatly.

"...That explains why the Vongola has been sending me e-mails asking for my presence of late. They must be desperate," said Reborn.

" _From what I understand, they would have felt the Vongola Sky Ring bonding to a new heir...even though they were stolen. There are only a few people it would bond with, after all."_

"You sound far too invested in this," said Reborn.

" _...Usagi is my Sky_ ," admitted Fon. _"The fledgling bond I had with her suddenly became a full one without any warning. And from the looks of things she's already beginning to influence Skull. I swear she had a predisposition to Clouds at this point."_

Reborn looked at his phone.

"I could have just sworn you said that you harmonized with the bunny girl."

" _I didn't stutter,"_ said Fon.

"...Is she building a famiglia yet?" asked Reborn seriously.

" _She has yet to bother with it. Honestly I think the only reason the Vindice haven't come bothering her is because of the weird relationship her cat has with their leader and the fact she's technically Vongola already."_

"...I... What?"

" _Apparently her cat recognized whatever it is they use to get around, and he's been teaching them other tricks they didn't know they could do with it,"_ said Fon, loving the fact he was getting one over on the Sun.

"...When I get there I want a proper explanation. And some good quality liquor."


	25. Chapter 25

"You look rather smug about something," said Usagi.

"Reborn saw the commercial, called me, and is now very confused and wants a proper explanation. It's been a good day," said Fon pleased with himself. Skull nodded enthusiastically to that statement.

"Can I stay?" he asked, hopefully.

"What's your specialty?"

"Motorcycles and stunts, mostly. I was a civilian before I got cursed. I'm known as the Great Skull-Sama!"

"Then you get to play around with our garage," said Usagi seriously. "If we're technically going to be an almost famiglia in our own right, then someone is going to have to soup up our cars and everything else."

Skull looked particularly enthusiastic about the idea. He wasn't too happy killing people for a living.

"Do you mind having an octopus around?" asked Skull.

"You own an octopus?" said Usagi in surprise.

Skull pulled off his ever present backpack...to reveal a fishbowl that was _just_ big enough to contain the rather adorable octopus inside.

"Too cute! You should totally show Mokuba! He'd love it!"

Skull beamed at her, before going off to show the younger Kaiba his pet octopus Oodako. Mokuba already thought Lichi was awesome... he was over the moon meeting the cephalopod. It was so creepy it was cute.

Mai, however, was not a fan. Neither, apparently, was Anzu.

The guys though? They loved it. Especially Jonouchi who was just a big a fan of Godzilla as Skull was...and promptly found a real career goal in life when he was too old to duel without getting looks. Skull was more than happy to teach the blond how to maintain and drive a motorcycle.

"If we're supposed to be an almost famiglia, what should we call ourselves?" asked Mokuba. He didn't really care for the mafia crap, but he found it all rather fun.

"Well what name did you give Usagi as a surname?" asked Fon.

"Sorano," said Usagi.

Fon blinked. He looked at her amused.

"You literally called yourself 'Sky Bunny' as a name?"

"Well Mama hadn't remarried yet, and I wasn't about to take the jackass' surname a second time..." shrugged Usagi.

Fon snickered. Personally he couldn't wait for the Vongola to play catch up with their next Donna. Usagi was nothing like they were used to and was more likely to take over the place and treat it the same way Kaiba treated his corporation. Odds were that the Varia would be very, very busy cleaning house by the time she was done.

Best of all, he would never be bored again!

"So... how does one go about becoming a full famiglia?" asked Mokuba. He was bored...they still had a couple of hours to kill before they reached the site of the old Kaiba Corporation tower where the finals would be held.

Hayato had gone over that place with a fine toothed comb to clean out anything that could still be useful or re-purposed. Shōichi had helped a lot in that regard...it was a headache explaining why a _civilian_ wanted military grade hardware, regardless of how outdated said hardware was at this point.

At most she was killing time until the Vongola got their head out of their asses. This was more like 'work experience' than anything serious.

Though she refused to listen to the idiots who let things get this bad. The second she took control of the group, she was sending the Ninth generation and the jackass far, far away for their long overdue retirement with strict orders for them not to show their faces for five years or unless the Ninth died.

Okay, so she was still bitter as hell about the fact the jackass had been lying to them for years and the fact the Ninth screwed her over with that damn seal. But if she was going to be petty about it, then dammit she was going to do it properly!

As Fon explained the bare minimum required to be taken seriously, Fuuta promptly sat in Usagi's lap.

"Ne, Usagi-nee? Why do you always walk so slow?" he asked. She always did things slowly and methodically, and he wondered why. He knew she could be really, really fast when she wanted!

"It's a hold out from when I had the seal on me. If I tried to do things at a normal speed, I was really clumsy and would likely trip on nothing. But if I took my time then I didn't have as many accidents. I suppose now it's more of a habit than anything... besides, heels are a nightmare to run in," said Usagi.

It had taken her weeks to get used to wearing anything with elevated heels. It had taken even longer to find a pair she even _liked_ enough to wear as casual wear.

People took her seriously with the extra height. Kaiba certainly seemed to approve of the more professional wardrobe, though the ears stayed.

She always feared that if she ever took them off for too long that she'd go back to being Tsubaki the No-Good, Clumsy and Useless girl she had been. That everything would be a dream.

And that would crush her completely.

"It's better to do things slow and get them right the first time than waste a lot more time doing it correctly after a failed attempt."

The fact Kaiba cared more about things being done _right_ the first time rather than it being done fast had only reinforced this habit.

"So where are we going?" asked Fon.

"The old Kaiba Corporation's private island where they used to have all their illegal weapon smuggling and trade done. Hayato's taken over the old contracts, but big brother doesn't want anything to do with the island since who knows what sort of mess was left behind on it. He plans to blow it up once the finals are over," said Mokuba.

Fon blinked.

"He plans to blow up an island."

"More like he told Hayato to scour the place for anything he thought was useful or he'd like to keep, before setting as many demolition charges on the old munitions and things so that whatever is on the island would be blown sky high once we leave," clarified Mokuba. "We've already had a lot of security on the island to make sure there aren't any squatters before we arrive, and we'll be doing a general sweep before we take off to make sure there aren't any when it blows. Shōichi made it pretty cheap to install a couple of special elevators tied to the duel disk system for the round robin, and the rest is just one big platform. Only cost us a couple million yen, since the rest is purely window dressing."

"...All this for a card game," said Fon.

"I don't get it much either, but his ego needs to be stroked every so often or he becomes all grumpy because the dead idiot in Yugi's Puzzle keeps beating him," shrugged Usagi. "Besides, compared to what other teenagers with far too much money on their hands do, is this really _that_ over the top? At least it's earning us a lot of money since it's a great way to promote the duel disk system."

"True. Compared to what he could be spending it on, this is actually relatively tame," said Fon, conceding her point. Just look at Mafia Land.

"Besides... we're almost finished buying another island to build a Kaiba Land theme park. It won't be _moving_ like Mafia Land, but we're hoping it generates a lot of revenue... to say nothing of the Duelist Academy Kaiba's been planning to make," said Usagi with a straight face.

"...They really love this card game, don't they?" said Fon, deadpan.

"I've long since come to terms with their obsession with it. So long as I don't have to deal with it outside of helping them keep the budget on task and keep their spending to reasonable things, I learned to tune it out," admitted Usagi.

"Yeah, big brother used to be _much_ worse when it came to this game," said Mokuba. "Usagi once had to forcibly pull him away from this over the top plan to beat Yugi because he was pissed the runt beat him at it. It would have cost us way too much, never mind the headaches dealing with the legal fees."

"I'm almost afraid to ask," said Fon.

"He was planning to hire mercenaries for an over the top deadly game of _laser tag_ , just to wear Yugi down before the duel," deadpanned Usagi. "To say nothing of the death trap he planned to make and then _televise_."

Fon stared at her.

"...I want to ask if you're kidding, but considering he plans to blow up an _island_ as the grand finale for this tournament..."

Mokuba snickered.

"Considering the popularity of our 'announcer', I think big brother was planning to have Usagi use some over the top 'magical spell' to set off the explosions or something as a joke."

Usagi twitched.

"Just for that, I'm getting a 'magical wand' and then using an X-Burner to set off the chain reaction. If anyone asks, it was all digital effects."

Mokuba started cracking up. Then he paused.

"What's an X-Burner?"

Fon smirked.

"Usagi figured out how to attack with her Flames directly. Remember that magical blast she used on Ra? She was using her X-Burner while amplifying Mogget's shield. And that wasn't even full power either," said Fon.

"So...what you're saying is that Usagi-nee can now blow things up with her magical powers," said Mokuba slowly, grinning widely.

"Not just blow things up. Once she figures out the trick of it, she'll be able to fly too. There's a reason they're called _Skies_ , after all," said Fon.

"If big brother finds out he's going to make you wear that magical girl costume _forever_ ," said Mokuba dead serious.

Usagi rolled her eyes.

"So long as I get to pick what it looks like, and he lets me wear professional clothes during business meetings. At this rate I'm going to become the 'official' mascot of Kaiba Corp with the Blue Eyes being the mascot of the boss."

Mokuba cracked up...because it was way too true. Then an evil thought occurred to him.

"I wonder how people would react if you had a Blue Eyes White Chick as one of your cuddly pets or something?"

Usagi blinked, before she started laughing.

"At this rate we might as well try making an anime!" she joked.

"Actually Shōichi and the others are already in the talks with Pegasus about ideas for an anime. He's agreed to split the revenue with us so long as we time any 'new' characters that are based on monster cards with the expansion."

"Just so we're clear, if anyone tries to make me do some corny speech about love and friendship I will blow up the studio. I refuse to be part of a cliché magical girl series. I'd rather be more like the _Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha_ series than anything close to _Sailor Moon_ or the various series it spawned," deadpanned Usagi.

"Do we get to pick our roles?" asked Fon, jokingly.

"You're a mysterious Chinese restaurant owner where the characters usually go to eat. You dispense sage advice, random things that sound like they're from Confucius, and generally act as the one who trains them in hand-to-hand once things become serious and the team is assembled," said Mokuba without missing a beat.

Fon blinked twice. He had been joking about that.

"What about I-Pin?"

"Daughter of the shop owner and the reason why they picked that place to eat. Once we find someone to do the voice for her older self, she's going to be the second or third member of the team," said Mokuba.

"Fuuta?"

"The usual little brother character, one who's always being kidnapped and the one who generally tends to contact the 'mystery planet' to get special items, advice and general plot lines for new enemies," said Mokuba. He grinned. "I'm going to be the sneaky kitsune who shows up to give directions and generally be a nuisance while making their romantic and personal lives difficult, but still an ally."

"Hayato?" asked Fon, grinning.

"A delinquent with a crush on the main character's older brother. He means well and he's always blowing things up in his face, but he's one of the more dependable male side characters. He'll actually win a few battles against monsters, but his main job is distraction and rescue," said Mokuba.

"Takeshi."

"Older brother who pretends to be clueless but helps behind the scenes. He mostly acts as an alibi and helps to keep things humorous," said Mokuba.

"Kaiba and Kyouya?"

"Kyouya acts as the main male fighter, while big brother is her crush. We plan to make it clear that both happen to like her, and eventually they agree to share when big brother finds out who Kyouya is and what he's been doing to keep Usagi-nee safe. You'll actually see two dragons sizing each other up, only to back off when Usagi shows up. We plan to add a Blue Eyes White Chick at some time that turns into a puddle of goo when she turns her Look on him."

Fon was snickering openly, as was Usagi.

"Mukuro and his group."

"Reformed villains," said Mokuba.

"Chrome."

"Neighborhood girl with a bad home life that comes to live with Usagi, only to turn out to be one of her 'allies/partners'. We're trying to keep it as true to life as possible. Though we're having trouble finding a way to get Usagi's character to realize she's now stuck fighting crime and other monsters," said Mokuba.

"Considering Reborn is openly planning to show up sometime after the finals, I doubt that will be an issue much longer," said Fon dryly. "The trick will be to convince him to go along with it."

"Wonder how he liked that commercial?" asked Usagi.

"He actually swore," said Fon openly amused. "Though odds are we'll have to deal with Viper sooner rather than later... there's no way the miser would pass up a chance to complain about someone using their face without their permission."

"Give them the sales of the cards featuring them directly. It's not like Pegasus will care since odds are the 'magical Usagi' cards will be his biggest sellers."

"True."


	26. Chapter 26

Isis' finally managed to corner Usagi. She was very leery of the girl who had somehow managed to summon _Slifer_ against Ra without using the card.

"Who or what are you?" she demanded. This girl was a potential threat against the Pharaoh, after all. She did nothing to stop her 'cat' from attacking him.

Usagi blinked, before her eyes seemed to glow with an orange fire.

"I take it you never bothered to look at me through the eyes of that necklace of yours, even after what happened."

Isis, after hearing that comment, opened her 'Inner Eye' to look at the rabbit-eared girl in the odd outfit...and nearly collapsed to the floor.

This girl... she was...

"A Blessed Child of the Sky..." whispered Isis in awe and amazement. She had heard stories of people who were blessed by the Sky Gods directly, able to weird a fraction of the primordial fires of creation...but she had thought that the Pharaoh would be the only Blessed Child she would ever encounter in her life time.

And yet here was one, untainted by the shadows and blazing so brightly. More to the point, the god Osiris had marked her as one of his Blessed Children _openly_. Even now, the necklace around the girl's neck _burned_ with the untainted fires of creation. Her aura was so pure and strong it was blinding.

Usagi smiled tiredly. To be honest she was happy that Isis was a dark Cloud of decent strength. It meant Yugi's Sky would finally find one to fit it properly since she had taken Kaiba from him.

"But last time..."

"I had a bad reaction to the intrusion, and it set off a trial that normally only happens when the one wearing the ring is put through a near-death situation. There's a reason why Mogget is one of my Guardians."

"The Tomb Robber," said Isis in disgust.

"Don't be so quick to dismiss Ba-Ku-Ra or the reason why he went after the Pharaoh. Do you even _know_ what that trinket around your neck is made of?" said Usagi.

Isis' hand immediately went to the Millennium Necklace.

"What it is made of? It's enchanted gold."

"Gold and the sacrificed corpses of an entire village of people who did nothing to deserve their fates. Men, women, even infants... all of them were thrown into the gold and _melted_ into the form of the Items. You are wearing the bodies of the dead around your neck and you treat it like it's nothing," said Usagi coldly.

"What?!" said Isis horrified.

"Ba-Ku-Ra's family and friends were all killed to make that hunk of 'gold' around your neck. And he saw the Pharaoh's guards kill them without even a hint of remorse...all for the powers the Items possess," said Usagi. "Why did you think he was so pissed off with the Pharaoh and his son? Why do you think he went to such lengths to retrieve the Items? He's been trying to put them to rest since he was strong enough to use the power of the shadows."

Isis wanted to deny it. To say that the other girl was a liar. Except... no one, not even the Tomb Keepers, knew of the origins of the Millennium Items. All that was known was that they came into being shortly before the Nameless Pharaoh came into power and that he inherited it from his father.

If she was right...if she really knew the origins of the Items... it would explain so much. The Tomb Robber's hatred of the Royal family and the Court. Why he was so desperate to get the Items to the point he made a deal with that _demon_. Why his grudge was still as fresh and potent now as it was then...

Isis was horrified at the idea, and properly so.

"How can you help the Tomb Robber and not the Pharaoh?"

"The Pharaoh is an egotistical idiot who keeps dragging _Yugi_ into the most ridiculous of situations all because he lost his memories," said Usagi flatly. "Ba-Ku-Ra was someone who was screwed over because the Royal Family wanted more power and was determined to get it regardless of the cost. I let him attack the Pharaoh whenever he's out because his anger towards him is for a legitimate reason...but in exchange he leaves Yugi alone. I will aid neither the Pharaoh or Ba-Ku-Ra in this quest for revenge. I will merely do my part to insure their reincarnated selves survive this mess that should have been resolves millennia ago."

"How is it that the Thief can exist twice?"

"The gods have apparently made an agreement with him. So long as he acts as my spirit guardian, he will be given a chance to earn his way out of whatever afterlife he was originally going to end up in for a better one. I am completely unable to use shadow magic, so he acts in my stead," said Usagi. "The spirit in the Ring was always there, dormant until now... but the part of him that served as collateral for the demon was trapped in the shadow realm. All I did was set him free, and now he's mine."

Usagi looked at Isis seriously. It was hard to believe she was wearing some silly magical girl outfit and rabbit ears with that expression in her eyes. In fact to Isis, it was like she was before a Queen of the Sky, rather than some mere secretary.

"Now... would you mind explaining why it is your _brother_ is so angry with the Pharaoh, to the point his mind was splintered?" she asked politely.

Isis winced.

"It has to do with how we've keep the secret of the pharaoh from being lost..." started Isis.

The more she talked, the more pissed off Usagi became...for Marik's sake.

"So let me get this straight. Your father _forcibly_ tattooed Marik's back with the secret without any anesthesia, despite the fact Rashid would have gladly taken his place to spare him the pain? All because Rashid was the adopted son, not the 'heir' of a legacy Marik didn't even want?"

Isis nodded.

Usagi sighed.

"Even indirectly that idiot pharaoh causes me no end of headaches..." said Usagi, rubbing her face. "I will do my best to help save your brother from himself once this tournament is over. At the very least I can give him a home that allows him to be free of the Pharaoh's misadventures while still keeping him close."

"What?"

"I seem to have a habit of taking in strays. And Yugi is practically my little brother at this point. Marik deserves a chance to be free of those dusty tombs and if that bike I saw was any indication he'll get along great with Skull."

Isis stared at her. This girl... what was she?

* * *

 _A few hours later..._

Rashid looked at Usagi and Isis.

"Are you serious?" he asked. If not for Usagi's intervention, he would have suffered the backlash of Ra's anger.

"She is a Blessed Child of the Sky. If anyone can save Marik from his actions against the Pharaoh, I believe it would be her. After all... Osiris himself has given his open blessing."

Rashid looked at Usagi. To all appearances she was a normal girl with some very strong protectors.

Except... he had seen Slifer manifest in her defense, and those wings of the great phoenix upon her back. He had seen the fires of creation at her beck and call as she shielded that woman from Ra's attack and _survived_.

"Why would she help Master Marik?"

"Because he's the same as my Mist," said Usagi.

"Kufufufu..."

Rashid whipped around to find... a teen with a strange hair style and terrifying mismatched eyes.

"Meet my Mist Guardian... Rokudo Mukuro. Like Marik, he has suffered unimaginable pain because of the adults in his life...and yet he came out on top. Now he's one of my strongest and most loyal people. If anyone could connect with Marik, it would be him or Ba-Ku-Ra. I believe that there are those who deserve a second chance to be free...especially when _traditions_ demand otherwise," said Usagi, spitting out the word with honest disgust.

Rashid had no idea how to feel, or even whether he should trust Isis. She had failed to keep her brother safe, had failed to stop his descent into darkness.

But...something about this woman gave him hope. Like a light shining in the depths of darkest despair.

"If I can get the Tomb Robber to tone down his hatred of the pharaoh, I dare say that the darkness in Marik wouldn't stand a chance," said Usagi dryly.

"Wait, what?"

"I got the Tomb Robber in the Ring to tone down his vengeance streak against the pharaoh. Now instead of trying to kill him on sight, he just mauls the hell out of him," said Usagi. "The 'cat' who created that shield against Ra is actually the other half that wasn't sealed in the Ring."

Rashid stared at her. That...explained so much.

"Besides, I still need to talk to that idiot dragon about letting _me_ be the one to blow up that damn island. With all the headaches that blasted Pharaoh's dumped on my lap during this tournament, I _need_ to blow something up."

* * *

"You want to what?"

"I know you're going to blow up that island at the end. I want to be the one to set the damn thing off," said Usagi flatly.

"I am not handing you the detonator switch," said Kaiba flatly. He didn't want the online audience to know that the island was going to blow up until _after_ the fact. "Besides, it's on a preset timer that will go off three hours after the last duel of the tournament."

"I won't need one."

"You're not going to use that 'magical attack' crap on the explosives are you?" asked Kaiba.

"I'm going to use a full-powered X-Burner on the farthest clump of detonation cord. If that doesn't set off a chain reaction, nothing will. What you saw before was the weakest setting I could manage while Mogget shielded me."

Kaiba stopped and stared at her.

"Remember that incident when I blacked out after Isis hit me with the vision? I thought I prudent to learn how to fight back with these...Flames...before those idiots came back trying to drag me into their petty problems."

"...I'm not about to lost my personal assistant am I?"

"Considering I can get Mogget to shadow travel me from Italy back to Japan, I should hope not. At most I'll probably have to take two weeks vacation to sort out their paperwork...among other things, before setting up a schedule that allows me to juggle both. Though I will be exiling the Ninth Generation and the External Adviser for five years so I can clean up the mess they've made," said Usagi without hesitation. "Though this all depends on how long it takes those idiots to figure out who the ring bonded to."

"Not assassination?"

"Patricide, regardless of whether I acknowledge the jackass as a father in the first place, is heavily frowned upon by the mafia," said Usagi dryly. "He's going to be in for enough of a shock once he finally gets his head out of his ass and finds out that his pretty little lie came crashing down over a year ago and that he has nothing left."

Kaiba hummed under his breath. He didn't have the same issue... his step-father committed suicide when he was outmaneuvered and none of it tied back to him in a way the cops could arrest him for.

"What's an External Adviser?"

"Pretty much exactly what it sounds like. Someone outside the family that acts as a second opinion and at times can act with the same authority as the family head. The fact the jackass is the Adviser means he's automatically kicked off the list of people who are allowed to inherit unless every other heir is dead."

"How much paperwork is involved?"

"No idea. Probably not as much as the actual head position though, and I know Hayato's profile said that he wants the right hand position. Takeshi's been joking about being the Left Hand... I'm not entirely sure he's aware of what that would entail," said Usagi frowning.

"Which are you?"

"Right," she said immediately. "Though if you wanted to get technical, Kyouya _could_ theoretically be considered your Left."

"Considering the best way to approach this issue if the Vongola figure out what happened to the rings, I'd suggest pretending Kaiba is the head of a smaller allied famiglia that you happened to be Flame bonded with," said Fon dryly. "That way if anyone asks, Mokuba is his 'Right' hand and you're filling in for him until he's older. It would also open up a chance for Kaiba to act as the External Adviser, which means that there would be nothing the Ninth generation would be able to do in order to get rid of him. At most you'd be filling a few extra bits of paperwork out, and no one said you couldn't operate your business on the side so long as it never conflicts with the rest of the business. It's not uncommon to have purely 'civilian' businesses that allow them to filter smaller members around and give them normal covers."

Kaiba, rather than be irritated by this, looked thoughtful.

"So just to be clear I'd have _competent_ and _loyal_ employees that know that I can do far worse than simply fire and ruin them, and a board that won't try to stab me in the back."

"Close enough," said Fon smiling.

Kaiba looked at his girlfriend/Personal Assistant.

"I'll act as the External Adviser, so long as I don't have to deal with the jackass or the previous generation. A little extra paperwork isn't going to kill me."

"No, but the idiot traditionalists might," said Fon.

"Which is why I'm exiling the Ninth generation for five years and calling it a enforced vacation while I sort out the mess. I can see the Varia being very busy and if I can get in touch with it's boss, very happy to clear out of the rats in it," said Usagi flatly. "Personally I'm hoping Mama will have a camera on hand when the jackass finds out that the pretty little lie he's concocted about a happy family shattered because of his incompetence and she's already moved on."

"How are you going to handle CEDEF then?"

"That's actually the easiest part. I'm throwing Kyouya into it and telling him I expect competence...and that he's free to bite anyone who fails to meet his standards," said Usagi with a straight face.

Fon stared at her for five full seconds before he started laughing. Hard.

"Lal Mirch is going to _love_ meeting you..." he said, walking away with a smirk on his face. Actually, once Reborn found out what she had planned he was probably going to enjoy the coming chaos almost as much as Lal Mirch was going to love having Kyouya as a boss.


	27. Chapter 27

Kaiba was glad to have this damn tournament over with. While he was irritated to lose Obelisk, the promise of the reward Usagi kept hinting at more than made up for it.

He could always win Obelisk back later. He'd rather claim his mate...and he really needed to quit hanging around Kyouya so often if that was the first thing that came to mind rather than girlfriend.

Of course Usagi's idea of ending everything with a bang and making everyone who was watching it from the live feeds believe it was all CGI or something equally ridiculous definitely had an effect on him.

She played up her "Magical Girl Announcer" persona with perfection, even using the 'staff' to channel her Flames and set off the detonation sequence once they were far enough for it to avoid the worst of the blast, but still close enough to see it. It reminded him rather strongly of a Blue Eyes blasting the hell out of something and he was just glad that they would be back on the mainland within a few hours. The fact Angel had shifted to his "wing" form (he was _not_ going to ask) to make it all seem like it was a digital effect didn't help this mental comparison.

He had never bothered to look at the female form before Usagi came into his life. Neither had Kyouya. Though both of them were similarly affected by the display of open and absolute _power_ Usagi had just shown.

They were dragons. Apex predators who refused to submit to anyone weaker than them. They had been attracted the little rabbit because she was a small animal the needed protection and submitted to their rule without being annoying about it. Because she smelled tempting.

If she had stayed the skittish bunny she had been before, they would have gotten bored eventually and possibly left one day.

Now though... now she was a powerful predator in her own right, able to stand tall and by their side as equals.

Kaiba wondered if the heat in his body was arousal...or this 'harmony' that Fon had spoken of before. All he knew was that the rabbit princess was _his_ and Kyouya's, no one else.

If Usagi is surprised by the rather possessive kiss from him (and it was quickly followed by a rather flushed looking Kyouya) she said nothing. Fon watched the entire thing amused and texted her something he couldn't quite catch that flitted across her glasses.

"Just so you know, I'm going to be offering Marik and Rashid a place in my Sky. They _need_ to get away from the Tomb Keepers after what they went through, and Isis said she'd smooth things over on her end."

"She seems to have gained a bit of respect for you," said Kyouya.

"More like awe," said Usagi rolling her eyes. "Apparently the 'Skies are considered royalty' thing has gone on a _lot_ longer than Fon implied. Though they had a different term for them in Egypt. Blessed Children of the Sky."

Kaiba frowned.

"Is that why there was an image of Slifer behind you when you blocked Ra's attack?"

"According to Isis, Osiris was blessing me directly. Those who have the Sight will see a necklace that's in the shape of an Ouroboros made of Slifer... which means it should be visible to those who have shadow magic. It means I'm extra protected from the shadow realm," said Usagi. "Outside of that... I guess we'll find out."

Kaiba's pupils were wide and almost slitted like a cat.

"Were you serious about what you said earlier?"

"Do I really look like the person who would joke about something like that if I wasn't serious? Mama said she was fine with it so long as we don't make them grandparents until _after_ we finish high school."

Kaiba smirked.

"I can live with that," he said.

Kyouya had a similarly pleased expression in his eyes.

"Of course I have something _special_ planned for you two. While I've gotten used to the outfit, I'm not about to let you two have all the control," said Usagi.

"Good. It would be boring otherwise," said Kaiba, before he realized what he said.

Usagi's smirk was not comforting in the _least_.

"Just so you know, Mogget introduced me and Chrome to the most _interesting_ shop before the finals started..."

The two dragons shared a look. Somehow they had the feeling that their planned night out was _not_ going to happen like they even remotely expected.

Mokuba was openly smirking when his brother finally came to work looking a hell of a lot more relaxed and less likely to roar at people for mistakes. It didn't take long for people to figure out what happened when Usagi and Kyouya came to work...and Usagi had a few hickeys on her neck that she failed to hide.

It was bad enough she got accosted at school when the other girls noticed (thank the gods for Chrome...she hid them from the teachers!) and demanded details.

The little kitsune (and that nickname stuck just as quickly as Kaiba's dragon nickname had the second Fon first used it in front of the employees) smirked as the betting pool exploded.

Several people grumbled when they realized that they lost out because it was pretty damn clear Usagi hadn't bothered to pick _one_ boyfriend, but had opted for the third option.

And there was only a handful of people who actually bet that she would share with the two dragons.

"Shishishi..." snickered Mokuba as he counted his cut of the winnings.

"...Why are you imitating the Varia Storm officer?" asked Fon.

"Who?"

"The Varia's Storm officer laughs _exactly_ like that," said Fon.

"Really?" said Mokuba, surprised. The sneaky laugh just felt right for some reason.

"He also goes ballistic whenever he sees his own blood, wears an actual crown and insists he's a prince," deadpanned Fon.

"What's his name," asked Mokuba.

"Belphegor."

Thanks to Shōichi, Mokuba was able to access the deep web and looked up a picture of the Varia's Storm officer. He blinked twice.

"You sure this guy is called Belphegor?" he asked.

"Quite sure, why?"

"Because he looks way too much like this ass we had to deal with back in Russia a couple years ago. Rasiel, I think...except the crown was on the other side. It's actually where I got the idea for the snicker... he went 'Ushesheshe'. Really creepy."

"...According to mafia rumor, Belphegor's first kill was his twin."

"Well then either he sucks at killing people or the death was exaggerated," deadpanned Mokuba.

Fon was about to say something when his pacifier started glowing.

"Could you bring up the video feeds?"

Mokuba handed him the remote, and within minutes Fon sighed.

"Reborn."

"That's the Sun guy, right? The one who's always stirring up trouble?" said Mokuba.

"Should we have someone pick him up, or let him make his own way in?"

"I can have Lancia pick him up. He's been pretty bored lately."

The mafioso gulped, but didn't argue when he drove out to pick up Reborn. Considering what happened right before the tournament, odds were the Vongola had sent him. And if they hadn't, then it meant they could help him with whatever he was there for and get rid of him faster.

Within fifteen minutes Reborn was sitting in an empty conference room with Skull and Fon, while Usagi came in with her Guardians. All of them.

"Ciaossu!" said Reborn, enjoying his coffee. It was acceptable.

"Chaos," Usagi replied with a grin. Reborn smirked. "So what brings you to Domino?"

"Long story short the Vongola have decided to test the waters of the unofficial heiress and find out if you were the one to trigger the reaction in the rings. Which are _still_ missing," said Reborn.

"Less missing and more 'reclaimed' by their rightful owner," said Usagi dryly. "And if the Vongola want to get in a snit about that, I never directly ordered my Mist to steal the rings specifically. I just gave the thief carte blanche to cause as much chaos and confusion so that my mother's divorce went unnoticed and he happened to present me with a rather interesting gift that I kept."

Reborn was nodding, smirking like the devil he was.

"And since you were kept out of the loop, you had no idea what they actually were and it was only natural that your Mist went after the most 'secure' item he could find to spread as much confusion without knowing what he was taking as a gift to his Sky."

"And as far as the Vindice are concerned, this is an internal dispute between two branches of the Vongola famiglia and therefor not their problem unless it escalates too far," said Usagi deviously.

Reborn was in a very good mood now.

"I think we're going to get along _splendidly_."

"Just so we're clear, I am not quitting my job as Kaiba's personal assistant. I have no interest in acting as the boss and my main responsibility is keeping all the factions in line and his schedule properly organized. And if you touch the ears or try to take them away, I will not hesitate to throw your ass into the shadow realm," said Usagi bluntly.

"It's not uncommon for Skies to work in the background while their Elements run the show, so long as they _know_ who's boss. And at this point the ears are the _least_ of my concerns," said Reborn dismissively. "That being said I will be testing you to see how much work I'll need to be doing in order to make you a proper mafia boss."

Usagi rolled her eyes.

"Please, how is the mafia any different from the higher tiers of the corporate world, outside of the fact there's more dead bodies and illegal activities involved?" she scoffed.

Reborn snorted.

"There's an entirely new set of rules that are enforced by the Vindice, you will likely have to deal with attempts to marry you off for political reasons simply because of your gender, and the Ninth generation has become increasingly senile of late," said Reborn flatly. "And if you haven't gotten started on learning how to use your Flames, then that will be one of the first things we're going to work on."

"The Vindice happen to like me because of Mogget, if they try to marry me off I'll simply elope with my dragons, and I'm more likely to ignore any demands from that idiot or the old man after their idiocy made my childhood a living hell. As for my Flames... well I've gotten a head start on figuring out how to use them thanks to that tournament, even if it does make me look like a magical girl," said Usagi, countering his arguments with perfect ease.

"...I really need a proper profile on you. I already threw out everything the Vongola and CEDEF gave me on principle since I knew more about your activities than _they_ did and they were entirely unaware we had met before on multiple occasions, much less that you were already gathering proper guardians," said Reborn.

"Talk to Fon," said Usagi. "Also, where exactly are you going to be staying while you're here?"

"With you, as per my contract."

"Not in my room," said Usagi immediately. "Mogget _barely_ scrapes by on that point because he's trapped as a cat and knows better. I'm not about to let a cursed _adult_ man stay in _my_ room at night, regardless of how honorable he may be. Not even Fon is allowed to stay in my room at night."

"Actually considering the recent change in your relationship, big brother has been thinking of moving you and the other guardians into our manor. It's not like we actually _use_ all those rooms anyway," said Mokuba.

The fact it gave him much better access to his bunny was a rather delightful side effect, even if he had to put up with more people in his home. At least he could tolerate most of them, and they all knew better than to dare invite the pharaoh anywhere near it. Him or his reincarnation.

"What's the security like?" asked Reborn seriously.

"It could use a major upgrade, so long as you run them past big brother first," said Mokuba.

Kaiba took one look at Reborn, confirmed he would be sticking around (and acting as a tutor for Usagi and possibly a few others while enjoying the chaos of the Vongola playing "catch up" with their potential heiress) before washing his hands of the matter. At this point if Usagi _did_ end up taking over the rather large Family, then it was guaranteed Kaiba would act as the external adviser since it meant A) she could gleefully kick her idiot ex-father out of a job, and B) enjoy the chaos of the mafia having to deal with her boss/boyfriend.

Reborn confirmed that while it would be _unusual_ for her External Adviser to also be one of her husbands (thus confirming that the mafia did allow for polygamy), it wasn't against the unspoken rules so long as Kaiba remained separate from the Vongola as a whole and did the paperwork.

To be fair, Kaiba fully planned on treating _that_ job as if Usagi was running an allied company that just happened to share a lot of projects together while remaining separate. Which was pretty much the same as he was treating Industrial Illusions, even if he _was_ still pissed off with Pegasus for all the crap he put him through. At this point, the only contact that man had with Kaiba Corp was conspiring with Mokuba for a quick laugh at the expense of Usagi and the others by turning them into card form.

Mokuba could forgive a _lot_ if it meant untold amounts of blackmail that he could laugh over later. Including the fact Pegasus made an effort to kidnap him.


End file.
